Wannabe Soul
by The Shrubbery King
Summary: Lewis likes the anime Soul Eater. But when he one day falls from the sky outside Death City, he realizes that if you're not a Weapon or a Meister, life can be a little more difficult. But there's something else he's noticed. Not everything is exactly as he remembers it... [Yeah it's a SI, but hopefully it's still good quality(No OP main character, I promise)] INTEREST ABANDONED
1. Chapter 1

Some people have dreams that they are falling endlessly, perhaps with no end in sight or something rushing right towards them. This was the kind of dream that Lewis was having, although the wind trying to push his eyes back into his skull made it seem quite real to him. Through his bleary eyes he could see endless yellow sand rushing towards him. Oh wait, he was rushing towards **it**.

Lewis let out a long continuous scream as he fell straight towards a sand dune, plunging into it and sending a small cloud of sand up into the sky. Coughing and spluttering, Lewis clawed his way out of the crater he made which was already filling with sand again. Shaking yet more hot sand from his hair, he looked up to see where he came from, but saw nothing but pastel blue skies.

"Weird. You never usually land in falling dreams." He muttered to himself.

Lewis looked around, but it all seemed to be nothing but blue skies and endless sand. Climbing to the top of the sand dune, he peered out and as he squinted he saw a small black dot on the horizon.

"Well, it's something. Guess I'd better get walking." He muttered, sliding down the sand dune.

Lewis' now sand-free hair was held up above his head with a little bit of hair wax, the sides and back cut short. He was wearing a dark green t shirt, a pair of jeans and green canvas shoes. Although he swore he had never owned a green shirt before.

Lewis kept walking, the heat starting to make him sweat. As he walked closer to the little dot on the horizon, the larger it started to grow. Soon enough it began to look kind of like a city, although it was still extremely far away. Although he could see some kind of light on the top of it.

"Is the city on fire?" he thought aloud. "Well it's still better than the desert."

Lewis continued to walk, feeling the sun on his back. Hours seemed to go past and he realised that the city had started to look more and more like some kind of giant castle. But he realised that his judgement may be clouded a bit, as it seemed that the heat was finally getting to him. His vision blurred as he stumbled forward, the hot sand starting to seep into his shoes and burn his feet. Lewis continued to trudge forwards over sand dunes and across large swaths of empty wasteland. Sweat began to sting his eyes, causing his vision to blur even more.

"Guess… falling from… the sky really… took a lot outta me…" he panted as he continued on.

Lewis had no desire to stay in a desert longer than he needed to. Trying to wipe sweat from his eyes only resulted in putting sand in his eyes as well as sweat, which blurred his vision even more as he walked. It was getting so bad that Lewis was just walking in the general direction of where he thought the large structure was while slowly dying of exhaustion and the heat.

It was as Lewis took another step that he began to feel something tingle throughout his entire body. Like there was some kind of… presence. He looked around, but saw nobody around.

"Hello?" He asked. "Is anyone there?"

There was only silence except for the blowing winds across the sand. But now that he was straining his ears, he was beginning to hear sounds from the structure ahead. It was faint but noticeable, even at this distance.

Lewis' shoulders slumped as he continued to drudge onwards, the sun continually beating down on him from above. Each step became an incremental effort as he began to feel his body slow down from inexplicable tiredness.

"Hey, are you alright?"

After the voice asked its question, Lewis felt himself pitch forward and fall to the sand with an audible flump.

*v*v*v*

*v*v*v*

The coffee shop wasn't busy this time of evening, the only customers being a few of the regulars. A snobby looking artist dressed all in black scribbled occasionally on a comically small sketchpad as three girls in various fashionable clothing gossiped and giggled between each other. In another corner a lonely looking woman in a form-fitting dress sighed again as she stirred her almost untouched coffee. Finally, sitting at another table with a small cup of tea was a large man with hair so purple it was often mistaken for being black, his black t-shirt barely fitting his muscular shape.

The person behind the serving bench, a thin girl whose name tag read Melissa Husk, blew a few loose strands of her long black hair from her eyes. Her fingernails which she was drumming on the table were painted with a deep brown colour, giving them the impression of dark lacquered wood. Her lips were also the same colour and her eyes were dull with boredom as she waited for the owner of the little shop to return from her break.

'Looks like it's another dull day again.' She thought to herself. 'Well at least it's a steady job. No idea how I'd be able to pay off my loans if it wasn't for Sweetums.'

Without so much as a hint of warning, a rush of footsteps thudded from down the sidestreet before the door was kicked off its hinges. Without missing a beat, the muscular man reached out and caught the door with a single hand. None of the patrons were particularly surprised at this, as the owner of the shop liked to announce her presence. Usually quite loudly.

The first thing one noticed about this woman was that she wore the brightest clothing in the city, a haze of garish pinks, ivory whites, baby blue and mint green. All of these colours were on the blouse and puffy skirt she wore, both with copious amounts of lace. Her legs were covered by pink and white striped thigh-highs her hands in a patching pair of elbow gloves. On her feet she wore a pair of shiny white buckled shoes. Finally her blond hair fell down to her back, despite some of it being held in two buns around the back of her head.

"Welcome back Miss Sweetums." The man said, gently setting the door down.

"No time to chat! Sorry everyone, but we're closing early today!" Sweetums cried. "Melissa! Get the medical stuff!"

It was at that point that Melissa and the other patrons noticed that she was carrying a young man above her head. He looked terrible, covered in sand and lobster red from the heat. The three girls crowded around to get a closer look.

"Is he okay?" one with a pair of thin oval glasses asked.

"He looks terrible!" another chimed in. "Is he a student?"

"I haven't seen him around before. Do you think he's new?" the last one thought aloud.

"Come on girls, give them some space." The man said, standing up and gently pushing them aside. "You heard Miss Sweetums, closing time."

The artist gave a strange clucking noise that sounded dismissive so it probably was, capped his pen and left. The woman quickly drank all of her coffee in one gulp and made for the door. Finally the man held the door open for the three girls as they left, all of them comparing their phones. It was as the man was about to leave that Sweetums put a hand on his arm.

"No Leo, you stay here." She said. "And please take him, he's really heavy."

Leo shut the door, turned the open sign to closed and picked the young man up before taking him up to the area above the café and laying him down on a bed. Melissa brought the medicine in a large white box, opening it up for Sweetums, who had just put on a surgical mask.

"You're not going to do surgery on him are you?" Melissa asked sceptically.

"No. I just wanted to wear it since it looks kinda cool. Oh, that reminds me! I don't have a nurse's outfit. I need to get one of those." She muttered to herself.

"His condition looks bad. Where did you find him?" Leo asked.

"He was out in the desert." She said as she took off her gloves before squeezing some burn cream into her hands and rubbing it onto the sunburn. "Dunno why. We should probably ask him when he wakes up. Oh, that gives me an idea! Could you go get some cold water?"

Leo nodded and left the room to retrieve some water. Melissa looked over him as she handed Sweetums some bandages, gauze and a few different kinds of creams and oils. From the looks of things it was some seriously bad sunburn, and while their aid would help, it would probably still hurt like hell.

"Who is he?" Melissa asked.

"Not a clue." Sweetums said, wrapping a bandage around a sunburned area she had spread a pungent yellow lotion on his shoulders. "Just found 'im out in the desert like this, a couple of miles from the city gates."

"All alone? Who **walks** to Death City? Y'know what, never mind. So what were **you** doing out there Miss Sweetums?" Melissa asked.

"I was having a picnic." She said, tying the bandage off. "I saw him looking like he was about to collapse, and when I tried to ask what was wrong he fell over! He wouldn't get up, so I took him here."

Leo returned up the stairs with a large pitcher of water. "I'm back."

"Ah, fantastic!" Sweetums said, giving Leo a quick hug before taking the pitcher from him and upending it above the unconscious young man's face.

Predictably, he woke up coughing and spluttering like he'd just been hit in the chest with an oversized hammer. Head darting between the other three, he began to wonder where he was.

"Well, he's up now." Melissa snorted. "Hey kid, how're you holding up?"

Giving a loud cough, he looked at his hands and arms, now completely covered in bandages. "Did you do this?"

"Yep." Leo said. "Miss Sweetums saw you collapse from exhaustion, so she brought you here. You're lucky. A few more minutes out in the sun alone and you might have died of heatstroke."

Lewis nodded slowly and turned to the woman with more colours than the paint section of an artist's specialty store. "Thanks. I suppose you're Miss Sweetums?"

"Yep! Got it in one!" she said chirpily. "You really should know better than to go walking out in the Nevada desert all alone like that."

"Nevada?" Lewis gawked. "When did I end up in Nevada?"

"What?" Melissa asked.

"Good question." Lewis nodded.

Melissa narrowed her eyes and gave a frown. "Hey Leo, you sure he didn't get heatstroke?"

"It is a possibility." He hummed in thought.

"Well, we hope you've learned your lesson." Melissa said to the young man. "You probably won't need to go to the hospital or see a doctor. Miss Sweetums has taken care with most of the sunburn but it'll probably still sting pretty bad."

"Alright. Thanks for the help." He nodded.

"So, what's your name kid?" Leo asked.

"My name is Lewis. Who are all of you guys?" he asked in return.

Melissa cleared her throat and began to explain. "You've already been introduced to Miss Sweetums. She's the owner of our shop where we are now, the Black Bean. The big guy is Leo. He helps around the place and is one of our regular customers. We've tried to hire him, but he already has a better job. Still doesn't stop him from lifting sacks of coffee beans for us."

"I'm a teacher at the Academy." Leo said.

"Cool." Lewis nodded.

"As for me, my name is Melissa. Melissa Husk." She finished. "I'm pretty much the only real employee around here. Not to say I'm the one who does all the work. Miss Sweetums does more than her fair share around the place."

"Alright, thanks for the introduction." Lewis said.

"So, are you a new student here for the Academy? I realise you might want people to think you're tough, but coming here through the Nevada desert probably isn't the best way to go about it." Leo chuckled. "Still, points for effort."

"No. I don't think I've even heard of this Academy before." Lewis admitted.

Melissa scoffed loudly. "Seriously? How could you not have heard of the DWMA?! It's the only reason anybody your age comes here!"

Lewis stopped moving.

"I don't think you're really being fair." Sweetums said.

Leo hummed in thought. "I can agree with that in some respects. It's not as if there's much scenery here."

Diodes in Lewis' brain began to spark. Nevada. Academy. DWMA. Death City. Soul Eater.

"Am I in… Death City?" Lewis hazarded a guess.

The other three finished talking amongst themselves. "Yeah." Melissa said. "Woulda thought that was kina obvious."

Lewis stat in silence for a second before throwing himself off the bed. "Nope. I don't believe you."

"Huh?" Sweetums asked.

"I mean, I can't be in Death City! Yesterday I was kilometres away from here!" Lewis reasoned.

"Grr… the metric system…" Melissa hissed under her breath.

"Well, if you don't believe us just take a look out that window over there." Leo said, gesturing to a rectangular lattice window with open curtains.

Lewis walked over and peered through the glass. Jaw dropping open, he opened the window and stuck his head out to get a better look. High up above him was an enormous off-white candle, its flame burning brightly in the early night sky. Looking over he saw the great red spires of the DWMA building. Carefully looking at the streets around him revealed many of the simplistic skull shapes that covered Death City.

"Careful. If you stick any more of your body out of that window you'll fall out." Leo chuckled.

Lewis couldn't tear his eyes off the massive structure as he retracted back into the apartment.

"So." Lewis began. "Death City huh?"

Melissa nodded slowly so Lewis could understand.

"Yep. You're really in Death City. Home of the Grim Reaper and the Death Weapon Meister Academy." Melissa explained with sarcasm so dense body armour could have been made out of it.

"Neat." Was all Lewis could respond with.

Sweetums leaned over to Leo. "Is he a witch?" she whispered. "He seems a little nervous about being here."

"A male witch? Don't be ridiculous." Leo snorted quietly. "But I don't really sense anything special or unusual. I think he might just be some lost kid. He might have run away from home or something."

Suddenly, Sweetums was in tears. Launching herself at Lewis, she wrapped him tightly in a bear hug that all but squeezed the life out of him while simultaneously drowning him in a wave of tears.

"Oh crap, not again." Leo gulped.

"Just what did you say to her?" Melissa accused.

"Something I regret." Leo groaned.

Melissa gave a sigh but then a small smile. "You've gotta hand it to her, she's got a big heart."

Sweetums sniffed loudly and released Lewis from her vice-like arms. "Don't worry Lewis! We'll let you stay here with us until you're ready to go back to your family and make up with them."

"Wha- no, no, my family is fine." Lewis reassured her. "I mean, I just don't know how I got here is all. I have so many questions and none of them have really distinct answers."

"So you have amnesia too! That just makes it more tragic!" Sweetums sobbed.

"What?! No!" Lewis shouted.

"Forget it, you're just digging yourself into a deeper hole." Melissa chuckled. "But if you do want to stay with us, then you can probably sleep on the couch in the break room. I think we have some spare blankets around here."

"You'd really let me stay?" Lewis asked. "That's very kind of you. But… what'll I do? I mean, I'm all alone here and I don't have any money to buy food or rent an apartment. I mean I can't just mooch off you guys forever can I?"

"Well if you're looking for work you can always work here." Sweetums offered. "As long as you're living with us you could be working for us as well."

"Really? I don't even have a resume or anything." Lewis muttered.

"Don't sweat it, working at a coffee shop isn't that hard. Besides, the most we have to deal with is ten people. And those are the busy hours." Melissa snorted.

Lewis nodded. "Alright. Thanks."

*v*v*v*

*v*v*v*

Lewis awoke with a start as Melissa tossed a bunch of clothing at him.

"Here's a spare uniform. Now get dressed, we've got about twenty minutes until the store opens." She said before shutting the door to the break room.

Lewis rolled over and looked at the clothes. The uniform seemed to consist of a black t-shirt, brown half-apron and black pants. Looking around, he was still in the break room of the Black Bean. The walls were definitely old with a few barely noticeable cracks etched into the plaster. The couch he had slept on was sagging and torn in places, but still quite soft. On small coffee table, stained with innumerable coffee mug rings was where Lewis had dumped his spare clothing.

"So I wasn't dreaming." He muttered as he got out from under his thick woollen blanket and got dressed in his new uniform.

He noticed that he didn't just have bandages on his hands, but all the way up to his shoulders and all around his neck. Not wanting to undo Miss Sweetums' hard work, he kept them on. Hurrying down to the shopfront, he saw Melissa chomping on a slice of toast while Miss Sweetums, now in an exaggerated maid outfit, was busying herself with cleaning the tables.

"Morning." Lewis said. "Where's Leo?"

"It's not like he lives here. He's just one of our customers." Melissa explained. "If you want breakfast, there's some bread and a toaster. I'm sure you don't need to hear the rest."

Lewis nodded. 'Is she this sarcastic all the time?' he thought as he prepared some toast.

"So Lewis, how're you feeling?" Miss Sweetums asked, suddenly appearing beside Lewis.

"Gah!" Lewis reacted. "Sorry. You startled me."

"Oh! I'm sorry!" Miss Sweetums began to bawl.

"No, no, it's fine!" Lewis reassured her. "Thanks for your help. It doesn't hurt yet either. That stuff you guys used on my sunburn is really good."

"Just give it a few days. You'll be writhing in agony soon." Melissa said through a sip of her coffee.

"Right." Lewis nodded. "So… what's with the maid outfit?"

Miss Sweetums started bouncing excitedly on her feet. "D'you like it? I think it's super cute."

Lewis scratched the back of his head. "Well yeah, but I didn't think that this was a maid café."

"Try getting me into one of those dresses and you'll regret it." Melissa said. "But Miss Sweetums is a responsible adult, so she gets to dress how she wants. Besides, it's her cheerful attitude that gets some people to come here. Not that many people know about us."

"How come?" Lewis asked.

"We're pretty out of the way here, close to the DWMA but far enough from anyone else that might want a coffee. The shop is completely cast in shadow because of the massive candle that's always overhead too. And of course, all the students at the DWMA would rather go to Deathbucks." Melissa scowled. "Their coffee tastes like watered down mud anyway."

Having never been into a 'Deathbucks' Lewis couldn't really form an opinion, just like the real Starbucks. He merely nodded politely and took a bite of his toast.

A clock on the wall ticked over to eight o'clock and Miss Sweetums flipped over the sign on the door. A good few minutes passed as Lewis looked at the clock. It was eight thirty and not a single customer had walked through the door.

"Hey Lewis," Melissa said as she jabbed her thumb to the coffee machine. "do you know how to use one of these?"

"I did some work experience at a tea and coffee house." Lewis said. "But I think I could use a refresher."

As Melissa set to work coaching Lewis through the minute details of making a good cup of coffee, the bell above the door jangled as Leo entered through the door.

"G'morning Leo! How are you doing today?" Sweetums asked chirpily.

"Well, thank you." Leo replied. "I'm just dropping by to see how your new employee is doing."

"I'm fine thanks." Lewis said from behind the coffee machine.

"Are you sure we can't get you anything?" Melissa offered.

"Maybe a long black to go, large size. I have to mark some tests today and I'll need something to get me through it." Leo said.

"Alright." Melissa nodded before turning to Lewis. "Okay Rookie, let me show you how we do this. First we get the cup size and with this pen here, we write the name of the order on the cup."

Taking a permanent marker and a large white cardboard cup, she scribbled Leo's name on it.

"What if we don't know their name?" Lewis asked.

"Trust me, there are about ten people who know about this place. You'll get to know them." She smirked. "Now, just fill it up and cap it off. Long black is probably the easiest ever to make, so I'll let you handle this part."

Nodding, Lewis took the cup and began pushing the machine's buttons. In no time at all the cup was full of piping hot, rich smelling coffee. Picking a lid from a small box full of the things, he capped it off and moved it carefully to the bench.

"One large long black for Leo." Lewis said.

"Thanks kid." Leo nodded. "Those bandages aren't getting in the way?"

"No, I'm fine." Lewis said with a wave of his hand. "Thanks for asking though."

With a curt nod, Leo paid for his coffee with exact change and left.

"Not bad." Melissa said, taking the money and depositing it into the cash register. "Well, that's the basics. You'll probably do fine, Rookie."

"Aw, you two are getting along so well." Sweetums smiled. "I'm going to go bake some more cookies."

"You've been waiting a long time to call someone Rookie haven't you?" Lewis asked with a grin.

"Yep. Now all there is to do is to wait for the lunch rush." Melissa said. "I suggest you visit the public library to get a good book or something."

"Wait, I get break time already?" Lewis asked.

"Yep." Melissa said, already taking out a book of her own.

"And about ten people max come here at any one time." Lewis said.

"Uh huh." She nodded.

"So... How exactly does this business stay afloat?" Lewis asked.

"Trust me. Every time someone comes in here they buy a good twenty bucks worth of stuff. We're a niche shop and our customers are willing to pay and wait for their coffee. Makes me glad to see that some people in Death City still have a little patience." She smirked.

"I see." Lewis nodded, taking off his apron and stuffing it into a small cupboard. "Well, I guess I'm off to the library then. Where might that be?"

Melissa took a pamphlet from a stand on the counter and handed it to Lewis.

"A Tourist's Guide to Death City?" Lewis read aloud.

"It's got a map and the locations of pretty much every important building in Death City as well as the Black Bean." Melissa explained. "But once you get used to the city's layout you probably won't need it anymore."

"Cool, thanks." Lewis said as he began to walk to the door.

"Oh, just remember to be back here by twelve!" Melissa called.

As Lewis left onto the street he unfolded the map and began walking through the cobblestone streets of Death City. Looking up to the sky, he saw the sun for the first time that he came here. Strangely enough, it didn't hurt to look at. But that didn't make it any less easy to look at.

"I don't think I'll ever be used to the sun having a face." He shivered. "Oh god, and the moon."

Shaking his head to put such mental images out of his mind, Lewis continued walking as he looked at the map and his surroundings. Eventually he found his way to the Death City Public Library, a large building with castle-like architecture with two large columns shaped into statues depicting the Grim Reaper himself, Lord Death.

"I'm surprised there are enough normal people here to warrant a library. I thought most of the people that mattered would be at the DWMA." He snorted.

Walking into the library, he began to look around. An old woman sat at the reception desk, looking at him through thick round glasses. Lewis walked over.

"Hello. I'm looking for the history section." Lewis said.

"Are you here to borrow?" she asked.

"Uh… Yes." Lewis nodded.

"You'll need a card." The old woman said, putting a form onto the desk and handing him a pen. "Just give it a quick look through dearie and I'll get you a library card."

Lewis gave a nod and quickly filled out the form, although the question asking if he had devoured a human soul recently threw him off a little. Taking the form back, the old woman produced a shiny black plastic card with a white skull on the cover of a leather-bound book on the front. Gold lettering above the book read D.C.P.L.

"Here you are dearie. Now just so you know, you've been granted public access. There are a few books that only meisters are allowed to read in this library, so you've been warned." She said. "The history section is just a few shelves over that way."

Lewis nodded and began to walk over in the direction that the old lady pointed out. Soon enough he found a large shelf filled with books. One of them stood out right away, with its gold lettering and alabaster cover. Taking it down from the shelf, he looked over the cover.

"Excalibur." He said to himself. "Nope. Not falling for that shit."

Lewis slid the book back into its shelf and looked around again. What surprised Lewis was the amount of stuff that was familiar to him. Books on the Middle Ages, ancient civilisations, anthologies and biographies, but then he saw stuff like 'A History of Meisters and Weapons', 'Ashes to Ashes: The Purpose and History of the Grim Reapers' and 'An Overview of the DWMA and Death City'.

"Yeah, this might be the stuff I'm looking for." Lewis nodded, taking out the history of Meisters and Weapons and the overview of the DWMA and Death City.

Lewis carried them over to the old woman and presented his card. She scanned it and the books before handing him a free bookmark.

"Just so we're clear dearie, if you doggie ear any of the books here," she said, a look of ferocity in her eyes. "You will be permanently banned from both the public library and the DWMA library."

"Don't worry, I've never dog-eared a book in my life." Lewis said, carrying the books under his arm as he fished around in his pocket for the map of the city.

Lewis made his way back down to the Black Bean, keeping both volumes under his arm. Opening up the door, he saw that Melissa was still reading her book.

"Oh, you're back." She noticed before returning to her book.

Lewis stood behind the bench, reading the first book he'd borrowed on the History of Meisters and Weapons. He already knew that a witch was responsible for the creation of transforming weapons, but what he felt it wouldn't hurt to learn more about them.

Melissa looked over and gave a small snort. "You're reading about Weapons and Meisters? Why?"

"Well, there are people in this world who can transform their bodies into powerful weapons. I think that's pretty incredible." Lewis said.

Melissa gave a frown and returned to her book. "That isn't so special."

"Why do you say that?" Lewis asked. "Have you got something against Weapons?"

"My sister was a Weapon." Melissa explained. "She always used to lord it over me too. 'Oh, look at me! I can turn into a big fancy fruit knife!' Whoop de freakin' doo. Mom and Dad gave her a lot more care and attention. They always said I could handle myself. I guess that means they trusted me, but at the time I still felt like I deserved some affection and recognition, y'know?"

Lewis nodded. "You're being pretty open about this. I didn't mean to pry."

"Hey, it's not as if I've got some tragic past or anything. I just came here to look after my sister. She lives with me in an apartment across town." She explained.

"I thought you lived here with Miss Sweetums." Lewis said.

"Nah, she owns the shop so she lives here on her own. But I see her pretty much every day, so we may as well be." Melissa said. "Now get your apron on, the lunch rush is starting in an hour."

As time marched onwards, more customers began to filter into the coffee shop. Then three girls entered the café, a small crowd of people following behind them. Lewis' eyes began to widen as he noticed that they were all focusing intently on him.

"So that's him?" one of the crowd asked.

"Yeah, definitely!" the girl with the glasses said excitedly.

"He doesn't look familiar." A boy chimed in.

"Same here." A girl agreed.

"Wait, what?" Lewis asked hopelessly. "What's going on?"

There was a great disturbance in the crowd as a teenager in thick round glasses and a bald head with two large points of hair on either side of his head squeezed his way out of the crowd with great difficulty. Lewis recognised him immediately.

"So you're the one that fell from the sky are you?" he asked.

"Fell from th- Yeah, I think I remember that." Lewis admitted. "Just who are you guys? And how did you know about that whole sky thing?"

"My name is Ox Ford. Yesterday I was doing some meteorology. Just little hobby of mine. However it was as I was identifying clouds that I saw something streak straight through a cumulonimbus and land in the desert." Ox explained. "A few hours later I hear a rumour that a wounded teenager had been brought into this coffee shop, apparently from wandering in the desert surrounding Death City."

"So you really landed in the desert?" gaped a member of the crowd.

"Were you flying? Does that mean you're a witch?!"

Lewis was rather taken aback by this question. "No! Last time I checked I can't perform black magic! I don't know how I fell from the sky, I just did!"

A lot of the crowd seemed to be quite disappointed. Ox meanwhile adjusted his glasses.

"Well, I've never heard of a male Witch before, but there's a first time for everything I suppose." He said. "I'll be keeping an eye on you, sky kid."

Ox left, but the crowd remained, trying to get a look at Lewis.

"Hey Sky Kid, over here!"

"What's with all the bandages? Did you hurt yourself Sky Kid?"

"Wait I'm confused, why are we calling him Sky Kid?"

Melissa watched with a sense of bemusement as Lewis tried to pacify the crowd of Meisters and Weapons. "Looks like you're a celebrity now." She chuckled.

"I just hope that fame is fleeting." Lewis hissed back. "Can't you do something about this?"

"I guess I should. There's a ton of potential customers in here and nobody's bothered to get their orders." She sighed. "Alright, so how many of you would like to order something?"


	2. Chapter 2

Lewis dropped himself onto the break room couch, feeling exhausted. So many people asking him questions as he prepared and served more coffees than he cared to count. The entire café was alight with rumours about the mysterious 'Sky Kid' who was standing just a few metres away and could hear every word they said. Some thought he was a legendary Weapon, others thought he was some kind of Meister prodigy. Some even suggested he was going to become their teacher. But there was still a large group of people who thought he was a Witch.

"I wish some of them could just do that soul sensing thing so they can put that rumour to bed." Lewis grumbled into a cushion.

"Miss Sweetums was really surprised how many customers we had." Melissa said, looking in the fridge. "I don't know if all these customers coming in will be good for us."

"What makes you say that? Business is good." Lewis said.

"Yeah, but it's really tiring. Plus the place was packed and noisy as hell." Melissa said. "It's not the atmosphere we're going for."

"Well if you look at it that way…" Lewis yawned.

Melissa also sighed and dusted off her apron. "Well I'd better get home. Goodnight, Sky Kid."

"Oh man, not you too." Lewis groaned.

With a chuckle, Melissa closed the door behind her. Lewis stared at the ceiling and pondered.

'So… what now? I mean, I'm in Death City. The actual Death City. Meisters and Weapons, Kishin Eggs and Witches are all very real here. What'll I do if I get attacked?' Lewis thought. 'Then again, Death City is probably the safest place I can think of in the Soul Eater universe. But that Jack the Ripper did turn up once. Who's to say another Kishin Egg won't try it?' Another thought occurred to him. 'Wait, it's probably likely that Kishin Eggs only come out at night. Since I spend my nights here the only time I go out is during the day. I'm perfectly safe.'

Lying on the couch and throwing a blanket over himself with a newfound sense of security, Lewis tried to get some sleep.

*v*v*v*

*v*v*v*

The next day, the excitement for the Sky Kid seemed to have reached its peak. The little café was flooded again with students, even in the morning.

It was during a lunchtime break as Lewis was preparing another coffee that the arid stench of cigarette smoke and antiseptic wafted into the café. Dressed in a stitched up white labcoat was Professor Stein, staring at Lewis from behind his circular glasses. He'd extinguished his cigarette outside, but the smell remained. But what really irked Lewis was the huge screw jutting from the side of his head.

'That has to be bad for his peripheral vision.' Lewis thought as Stein approached the counter.

"Hello there." He said. "So you're that kid that came hurtling down from the sky? I suppose you've got the bandages to prove it."

Lewis remembered that he hadn't thought to take them off. He also realized that he hadn't bathed in about two days.

"And you must be Professor Stein." Lewis observed. "Would you like to order something?"

Stein's eyes had a brief spark of interest cross them. "Interesting how you know who I am. Might I ask how you came to know my name?"

"I've heard a couple of rumours." Lewis admitted. "Although, they do make you out to be a little screwy. Er, if you'll pardon my pun."

Stein looked quite amused as he turned the large screw on the side of his head. "I see. Well I suppose it's a little hard to stop rumours from spreading when my main hobby is dissection; that much I will admit." He chuckled. "As for coffee, I don't think I'm really in the mood for caffeine. Maybe some other time."

The Professor left without so much as another word. After the door shut behind him, the rumour mill started up again with full force, the entire café erupting into chatter.

Taking a new cigarette from the depths of his coat, Stein lit the end and walked back to the DWMA. Leaning against a brick wall was Leo, who joined him as he walked.

"So? Did you see anything peculiar?" he asked.

"His soul is fine. I took a look at it while we were talking, and none of it looked out of place or inconsistent. Although I could tell he was lying about something." Stein said.

One of Leo's eyebrows raised. "Lying? About what?"

"He said he knew who I was through some rumours. While I have no doubts that rumours of me exist, he seemed quite tense." He explained.

Leo gave a chuckle. "Perhaps it was those rumours that put him on edge."

Stein frowned. "Perhaps. But I'm not convinced."

*v*v*v*

*v*v*v*

About three days after, it seemed that the excitement had come down a bit. Not nearly as many people were coming into the shop, the shop's former calm and serenity slowly beginning to return. It was late in the day when Lewis prepared two cuppachinos and a spiced latte for the three girls in front of him, each of them busily chatting.

"So the other day, I heard that Olga was finally getting the hang of her transformations." The girl in glasses said happily.

"Really? Oh I'm so jealous. I still can't do anything right." Another sighed.

"Don't worry, you'll get there eventually." The third said as Lewis set down their coffees in front of them. "Thanks Sky Kid."

"You're welcome." Lewis nodded. It seemed that he was finally getting used to his nickname.

"Oh fleeting fame and fortune." Melissa snorted. "It seems like it was only yesterday that this place was packed to bursting."

"I suppose that's what happens with gossip and sensational news. People tend to forget it soon after they hear it." Lewis said, getting back behind the counter. "Break time soon?"

"I think we're in our break time." Melissa said, taking a magazine from the stand in front of the counter. "Oh look, there's this Weapon supermodel fad again. I thought that went out months ago."

"Weapon supermodels?" Lewis echoed in mild disbelief.

"Yeah, something about how beauty should extend to Weapon forms or beauty and strength, or something like that." Melissa explained. "I think it's a load of crap."

Lewis nodded politely and put away his apron in a cupboard, picking up his borrowed books as well. "Well, I'm going to go return my books. Mind if I take the rest of the day off?"

"Yeah yeah." Melissa said absent-mindedly. "What, those two textbooks? You've finished them already?" Melissa asked. "God you're a nerd."

"I just skimmed it!" Lewis replied before exiting the shop, map in pocket.

Melissa snorted and returned to her magazine, looking over the supermodels and their weapon transformations with longing eyes.

"Are you okay Melissa?" Miss Sweetums asked from across the counter, now dressed in a lemon yellow dress and a large straw hat. "You look really unhappy."

"I'm fine, Sweetums." Melissa said, putting the magazine back on the stand. "Really."

Sweetums took the magazine and flipped through it, seeing the article Melissa was reading as she rested her chin on her hands, elbows on the counter.

"Oh, Melissa." Sweetums said in a comforting tone, wrapping her arms around Melissa. "You really shouldn't beat yourself up about not being a weapon."

"Yeah, but my sister's a weapon. I'm not. How the hell does that work?" Melissa said with downcast eyes.

"That's just family. Genetics." Sweetums said. "Sometimes you're not born like the rest of your family. But that shouldn't change who **you** are."

Melissa allowed herself a smile. "Thanks Miss Sweetums. Now can you please stop pressing your boobs into the side of my head?"

Miss Sweetums looked down and let go quickly, her face flushing bright red. She stammered an apology and left quickly. Melissa watched her go and smiled.

"That made me feel a lot better." She smiled.

*v*v*v*

*v*v*v*

Lewis had just returned the books he had borrowed and was now combing the shelves for something that gave financial advice. While Miss Sweetums was kind enough to let him stay, he knew he couldn't just mooch off them forever. Hopefully he'd raise enough money working for them to actually buy a small apartment or something so he wouldn't have to constantly sleep in the break room. But his search ended up being fruitless. Sliding his library card back into his pocket, Lewis left the public library and walked back out onto the street.

It was a sunny day. Not scorching hot, but warm enough to give a sense of peaceful lethargy. Death City seemed quite busy, filled with the normal folk Lewis never thought might inhabit Death City as they went about their daily lives. Lewis decided to take a look around the city, wandering through the city's stone streets.

Lewis climbed up and down countless stairs, getting a good look at the city from viewing platforms and resting in parks. For being situated in the middle of the Nevada desert, Death City was quite a fertile place. It was as Lewis was walking through another street when he heard the sound of something bouncing.

"He shoots! He scores!" came a shout from nearby. "And the crowd goes wild!"

'I recognise that voice.' Lewis thought.

"Hey, pass it over here." Said another very familiar voice.

'Yeah, that's Maka.' Lewis thought, walking past and looking into the concrete basketball court. Lewis could see Soul, Maka, Black Star, Tsubaki, Kid, Liz and Patty were all on the basketball court. Lewis paused for a few seconds before he kept walking. He probably should stay out of their business. Besides, it was getting pretty late.

Maka spotted a strange guy with bandages all over his arms and neck walk past the entrance to the basketball courts before disappearing behind a wall.

"Hey Maka. Maka! You still awake?" Black Star asked impatiently.

"I'm fine." She said, tossing the basketball at the hoop. "I just saw this guy covered in bandages walk by."

"Bandages?" Soul asked.

"Yeah, I heard about that guy!" Patty said excitedly. "He fell from the sky!"

"Patty, what have I told you about listening to rumours?" Kid asked.

"Say what you like Kid, but nothing can stop good juicy gossip." Liz said with a shrug.

"He must be pretty strong to survive falling from the sky! Now I really wanna meet this Sky Kid!" Black Star grinned.

"You really shouldn't pick fights all the time." Maka chided.

"She's right Black Star. You really should focus on training instead of fighting all the time." Tsubaki put in.

"They're the same thing!" Black Star snorted.

"Maybe we should meet him. Everyone else seems to have gotten over it." Soul suggested. "Who knows? He might be a pretty cool guy."

Maka nodded. "Sounds good. I've been meaning to visit that café anyway."

*v*v*v*

*v*v*v*

The very next day, Lewis felt like he was about to shit a brick. All the main characters were sitting in the middle of the café, having all being served by Melissa.

"Hey. Looks like you've got a couple more fans here to see you." Melissa chuckled.

"Hey!" Black Star shouted indignantly. "If any fans are here to see someone, it should be me, Black Star!"

"Calm down you idiot. You're embarrassing us." Maka said.

Lewis gulped and turned to Melissa. "You said these guys wanted to talk to me?"

"Yeah." She said. "What, d'you know them or something?"

"No, just… they seem kinda different to the others." Lewis said. "Shouldn't I be on the job though?"

Melissa gestured around to the empty shop before returning to the counter, satisfied with her answer. Steeling himself, Lewis walked over to the table.

"Hey." He said simply.

"Hi." Liz said. "So you're that guy who fell outta the sky?"

"So I've been told." Lewis shrugged. "So, what did you guys want to know? I thought there weren't any new rumours being made."

"Well, your name would be nice to know."Tsubaki said.

"My name?" Lewis echoed. "Heh. For all the people who were asking about that whole sky thing not one of them asked my name. They all just kept calling me Sky Kid."

"Yeah, we know." Liz said, leaning back on her chair. "It really gave Kid a headache."

Lewis chuckled slightly. "Alright. My name's Lewis."

"Cool. I'm Soul, Maka's weapon. I'm a scythe." He said, with a little hint of pride.

"And I'm Maka, his Meister." She said with a small wave. "I'm sure you can guess who the guy with the blue hair is."

Black Star thumped an oversized shoe onto the table. "That's right! There's no star more recognisable than I am!" He loudly proclaimed. "The name's Black Star! Remember that!"

"I'll be sure to make an effort." Lewis said snidely, although such a subtlety went unnoticed by Black Star.

"Black Star can get a little excitable, but he's a good Meister." Tsubaki explained. "Oh, that reminds me. I'm Tsubaki, his weapon."

"Of course, you might know who I am already." Kid said, clasping his hands. "I'm Death the Kid, son of the Grim Reaper."

"Huh. Neat." Lewis said.

"That's your reaction?" Melissa shouted in surprise.

"Should I have done anything else?" Lewis asked.

"He's the son of the Grim Reaper for crying out loud, show a little respect!" Melissa shouted.

"Right. Sorry about that." Lewis said to Kid.

"Don't worry about it. Anyway," Kid began. "These two ladies are my weapons of choice, Liz and Patty."

"Hiya!" Patty said, immediately grabbing onto Lewis' shoulders and pulling him into a tight embrace, almost choking the life out of him.

"Patty, I think you should probably let go now!" Liz warned. "He's turning purple…"

"Oh! Sorry." Patty said, letting go of Lewis who dropped to the table and lay there for a few seconds, wheezing and coughing.

Black Star rested his head on his hand. "He doesn't look so strong. Maybe he just got all those bandages in an accident or something."

"Well appearances can be deceiving." Maka said.

Lewis, having finally breathed in enough oxygen to survive, stood back up. "Right." He said. "Thanks for introducing yourselves. It's nice to meet you."

"Come on, take a seat. Tell us about yourself." Liz said, pulling out a chair.

Lewis hummed as he sat down between Liz and Soul. "Well, there's not really much to tell. I like books, video games, writing… I don't like sports though."

"You're an author?" Maka asked.

"Well, not published." Lewis admitted. "So far I think I'm just a writer, not an author."

"Okay." Maka nodded.

"Were you here to join the DWMA?" Kid asked.

"No, I'm not a Weapon. Or a Meister for that matter." Lewis said.

"So why are you here?" Tsubaki asked.

"I dunno. I just kinda… fell out of the sky I guess." Lewis asked. "I guess I could try looking for some answers, but I've got no idea where to start."

"You don't know why you fell from the sky?" Liz echoed.

"Not a single clue." Lewis nodded.

Black Star groaned and put his feet up on the table. "Aw man, and I was really looking forward to fighting you."

Lewis leaned over to Soul. "Does he want to fight everyone he meets?"

"Just about." Soul smirked, revealing his sharp teeth. "Don't worry about it, he's just looking for a challenge."

"Yeah, but I'm gonna be the best ever! I'm gonna surpass God!" Black Star declared.

"A lofty goal." Lewis smirked. "It'll be interesting to see if it comes true or not."

"Oh it'll come true, just you watch! I'll give you front row seats!" Black Star shouted.

"Could you kids tone it down a little? I'm trying to work here." Melissa said, turning over the page of her magazine.

"Sorry." Tsubaki apologised.

"So Lewis, where are you from?" Kid asked.

"Yeah, you sound pretty different." Liz nodded.

"I'm from Australia." Lewis said.

"Really?" Patty asked. "I love Australia! It's got so many cute animals! Koala, kangaroos, wombats…"

"Spiders, snakes, witchety grubs, cane toads…" Lewis continued, watching Liz become progressively more squeamish.

"Stop! Stop! You're really freaking me out!" Liz screamed.

"So far away? And you say you got here just a few days ago?" Maka asked.

"Yep." Lewis nodded. "One day I just woke up falling towards the ground. I thought it was one of those dreams where you just fall endlessly. Turns out it wasn't a dream."

Kid nodded, hands resting on his chin in thought.

"Weird. Well, welcome to Nevada." Soul said. "So do you have any plans?"

"Not really. I think I'll just keep working here until I get enough money to buy an apartment or something." Lewis shrugged. "Other than that, I've not got much on my mind."

Maka nodded. "Well, since you've told us about yourselves is there anything you'd like to ask us?"

"Yes actually. What's it like being a Meister? Or a Weapon?" Lewis asked.

"There's some pretty intense training we have to go through, not to mention we have to keep constant study of our craft." She explained.

Lewis was still a little confused. "So is that just Meisters or Weapons as well?"

"Both." Maka said. "A Weapon's strength correlates to their physical form. Meisters need to train hard to wield their weapons effectively."

"Well I guess there's not much chance of me being a Meister." Lewis chuckled. "I'm not exactly a fighter, although my abilities as a lover are yet to be tested."

Maka didn't seem to take too well to this joke and made a sour face.

'Maybe she's thinking of her Dad.' Lewis thought. 'Great, now she probably doesn't think much of me.'

"So, Kid." Lewis said, trying to move on from the subject. "You said you were the son of the Grim Reaper? I bet you get a lot of attention because of that."

"I don't think I deserve any special treatment, if that's what you're asking." He said with a snort. "I'm going to train as a Meister the same way as everyone else."

"Kid's got a mind for tradition." Liz smiled.

"So, why do you use two weapons?" Lewis asked.

"Why, to achieve perfect symmetry of course." He said. "Symmetry is the cornerstone of perfection. Without symmetry there is only chaos."

Lewis looked intently at the white stripes across Kid's hair. He was wondering if he should say anything, considering how he knew how Kid would react.

"Don't." Liz said.

"Huh? Don't what?" Lewis asked.

"Don't ask about his hair." She said. "He never stops crying if you talk about it, so don't ask about it."

"I was just wondering why he didn't dye stripes into the other side of his hair. I was curious as to why only one side is dyed though. I thought it was symbolic or something." Lewis shrugged.

Kid's eyes lit up before he got to his feet. "I see now. Why didn't I think of this before?!"

"Huh?" Lewis asked, eyes widening in surprise. Kid was crying!

"Thank you my friend! I never thought of that before! Liz, Patty! We're going to get some hair dye!" he shouted, sprinting out of the café.

"Hey, wait for us!" Liz shouted.

"Yay! Shopping!" Patty laughed as she bounced out after them.

There was a brief moment of silence before Melissa spoke up.

"Did the son of the Grim Reaper just walk out without paying?" she asked.

"I think it was more of a sprint." Lewis agreed.

Black Star suddenly looked quite alarmed as he put two and two together. "Tsubaki! Smoke Bomb Mode!"

In a single instant the entire café filled rapidly with yellow smoke as all four left in the café coughed loudly to clear their lungs.

"Damn cheapskate!" Melissa coughed. "Wait until I get my hands on him!"

As the smoke cleared, Maka and Soul gave a groan of defeat. "Looks like we've been left with the bill."

A short time later, Maka handed Lewis a few dollars which he put into the till.

"Thanks for visiting the Black Bean." Lewis said. "Hope you come again."

"Thank you." she said. "I'll try."

"It was good to meet you." Soul said. "You seem like a pretty cool guy."

Lewis gave a smile. "Thanks."

After that, they left the café, the doorbell jangling behind them as they left. Lewis hummed to himself as he cleaned up the tables.

"You seem awfully chipper." Melissa said.

"I did just make a couple of friends. They seem pretty interesting." Lewis shrugged as he placed all the dirty dishes into the large washing machine.

"Friends huh?" Melissa snorted. "That's inconceivable."

"Jeez, rude." Lewis said. "Besides, I don't think you're using that word right. Inconceivable is something like Miss Sweetums in a bad mood."

Melissa suddenly looked a lot tenser as she violently threw down her magazine. "Don't even joke about that!"

"Huh?" Lewis asked, startled by the sudden change in emotion. "What did I say?"

"I guess nobody told you, but when Miss Sweetums gets into a bad mood, she transforms. She's a weapon that was banned from the DWMA for being too powerful to effectively control. Leo was her Meister." Melissa explained. "She once blew a building-sized hole in the side of the DWMA."

Lewis retrieved his jaw from the floor. "What kind of weapon could do something like that?"

"She's a gun." Melissa said.

"A gun?" Lewis asked, sceptically. "Seriously?"

"I don't mean firearms, like a pistol. Common misconception." Melissa explained. "Sweetums is an artillery cannon. Eighty eight millimetres, explosive payload, initial shot creates a damaging shockwave. She once almost destroyed the shop when someone was caught shoplifting. If you make one screw-up in Death City, don't let it be making Miss Sweetums mad, or it'll be your last, as well as the last for the fifteen closest people to you."

Lewis gulped loudly and nodded. "I'll keep that in mind."

*v*v*v*

*v*v*v*

The next day, Lewis had received a paycheck of about three hundred dollars. He was currently trying to figure out how to divide it up to give him some space of his own. Miss Sweetums was already providing room and board, but as he had thought many times before, he felt he needed his own space. Even more so now that he knew that if he got Miss Sweetums mad he'd become nothing more than a stain and a memory.

'Maybe I should check out the real estate agent. Who knows? I might find something affordable.' He thought, stuffing the check into his pocket.

A few minutes later, Lewis was checking around Death City for any estate agencies. Unfortunately, he wasn't having much luck. The streets of Death City were just so strangely laid out. Winding streets, tall buildings and multiple levels gave it a maze-like quality that confused Lewis to no end as he wandered the streets for what seemed like hours. It was as he entered a courtyard with a large circular fountain in the centre when he stopped and groaned in frustration.

"Ugh. Screw it, I'll just head back to the… wait a minute." Lewis said aloud, checking his pockets. Then his back pocket. Then his front pockets again. "Ooooooh this isn't good."

He'd forgotten his map.

"Okay, stay calm. Just gotta backtrack." Lewis said to himself, turning around and walking back the way he thought he came. A few minutes later and he was back in the exact same courtyard

"Oh great. Just perfect." He grumbled. "Maybe I should've written some directions on my bandages. Come to think of it, I probably should've taken these off by now."

Lewis peeked under his bandages, and the worst smell he'd ever experienced seeped out from underneath, causing his nose to wrinkle like a grandma in a hot shower.

"Maybe not…" Lewis said, tightening the bandage up again. "Still, this doesn't help me find my way back."

Lewis started walking again, although his pace was hastened as it was starting to get quite dark, the shadows on the cobbled streets extending like spears. Lewis looked around, but he was totally lost.

"Hey, you lost?" asked a voice from behind him.

Turning around, Lewis saw that it was Maka and Soul. Soul had a bag of groceries hanging off his arm, hands in his pockets.

"Oh, hi Lewis." Maka said.

"Hey there." Lewis waved. "Yeah, I suppose I am a little lost. I forgot my map, so I can't really find my way back."

"We can help you find your way." Maka offered. "It's not actually that far from here. It's on the way to our apartment as well, so we can walk with you."

"Sounds good." Lewis nodded.

As the three of them walked on, they engaged in conversation.

"So what were you looking for this late at night?" Soul asked.

"A real estate agent. I was wondering if there are any free apartments around Death City." Lewis said. "I guess it took me a while. I started looking around about mid-day."

"Don't you live with Miss Sweetums?" Maka asked.

"Yeah, but it'd be nice to have a little space of my own." Lewis replied.

"I think there's an apartment next to Black Star's place for rent." Maka said. "Although the last residents did constantly complain about the shouting from next door."

"Soundproofing the walls probably isn't that expensive." Lewis shrugged.

"It already was soundproofed." Maka said.

"Yikes." Lewis gulped. "Speaking of yikes, what's with those big candles? They're huge! Don't they occasionally drip hot wax on people passing below?"

"That only happens really rarely." Maka shrugged.

"You mean it actually kills people?!" Lewis gasped.

"Well, it doesn't kill anyone. Usually." Maka said. "Normally it just drops wax onto the streets, then people have to be called in to clean it up."

Lewis stared straight ahead, looking up at the candle warily. "This place is insane."

"It is the home of the Grim Reapers after all." Soul shrugged. "Death City probably isn't the most normal place in the world."

"Isn't that the Black Bean up ahead?" Maka asked, pointing to a sandwich board with an arrow pointing into an alley

"Yeah, I think that's it." Lewis nodded. "Thanks guys."

"No problem." Soul nodded. "Just be careful, alright? The streets aren't exactly safe at night."

"Don't worry, I'll be-"

Lewis was cut off by a loud growling coming from behind him. Slowly turning around, Lewis saw a pair of glowing red eyes in the shadows of the alley. A cold chill wormed its way down his spine and into his gut as he stared at the thing.

In a sudden flash of movement, the thing leapt out of the shadows, revealing its bloated and pale body, jagged and broken teeth and its hands, the flesh on it calloused by crawling around on all fours. It made to grab for Lewis, who jumped backwards with a yelp and landed on his back.

"Get out of the way!" Maka ordered. "Soul!"

"On it." Soul said, transforming into his weapon shape.

Lewis looked at Maka and Soul ready to fight the thing that attacked Lewis. Soul's red and black blade glinted in the moonlight, Maka poised to launch into battle. She looked at Lewis, sprawled on the ground and awestruck.

"What are you just sitting around for?! Get out of the way!" Maka shouted.

Lewis snapped out of his stupor and scrambled to his feet. "Right!"

Feet thudding on the streets, Lewis ran for the nearest street corner and stopped, watching Maka and Soul fight off his bloated attacker. Both were surprisingly acrobatic. Lewis watched in awe as Maka leapt around the street, moving like he'd never seen an ordinary human move before.

"So this is what Meisters are capable of." He thought aloud.

Lewis heard a wet thud from behind him. Whirling around, he saw another vaguely humanoid thing glaring at him with hungry, vicious eyes. As it charged at him, Lewis began to feel a sharp twinge and tingling in his left hand, but he couldn't take his eyes off the thing in front of him. His feet were rooted to the ground in fear as he stared at his oncoming doom. Something clattered to the ground beside him with a jangling rattle. Lewis closed his eyes and raised his hands in front of him to shield himself.

The impact never arrived. Eking open his eyes, Lewis saw that Maka and Soul were standing in front of him with Soul holding two floating red souls.

"Two more tasty Kishin Eggs. Looks like today just got better." Soul smirked.

Without so much as a warning, Maka had produced a book out of nowhere and slammed it into Soul's head.

" _Maka Chop_!" she shouted. "Soul you jerk, one of our friends was in serious danger!"

"Y-yeah, thanks for that you guys." Lewis said. "You saved my life."

Maka and Soul were looking at him quite oddly, with Soul looking at his arm with a lot of interest.

"What?" Lewis asked.

"You mean he hasn't noticed?" Maka whispered to Soul.

"I don't think so." Soul whispered back.

"I didn't know that you were a weapon." Soul said, pointing to Lewis' left arm.

Looking down, Lewis saw that his arm had disappeared at the elbow, the rest of it extending into a long length of chain with a thick circular shackle at the end.

"Whoa, what the hell?!" Lewis screamed, clutching at the stump of his left arm. "Wh-what's going on, why did my arm turn into chains?!"

"A shackle? I've never seen that before." Maka said.

"Well there are some pretty weird weapons at the DWMA." Soul shrugged.

"How do I turn it back?" Lewis asked loudly. "I like having my left hand! I'm very attached to it."

Soul sighed at Lewis' overreaction and pun. "Just chill out man. Breathe, okay? Do that and I'll tell you how to turn your hand back."

Lewis took several deep breaths and tried to calm himself down. "Okay, what do I do?" he asked.

"Just imagine your arm turning back into its normal shape." Soul said simply. "Don't try to force it, so just let it go back to its natural shape."

Lewis tried what Soul suggested and sure enough, his hand returned to its normal shape.

"That is so weird." Lewis said, opening and closing his hand. "Am I dreaming?"

As Lewis saw Maka raise her book again in an attempt to answer his question, he took a long step backwards.

"Never mind." He said quickly.

Maka put away the book. "So, I guess that means you'll be attending the DWMA from now on."

"Huh? Me?" Lewis asked.

"Yep." Maka said. "Untrained weapons are dangerous. If they can't control their transformations, then they might cause severe damage to themselves or their surroundings. That's part of the reason the DWMA was set up in the first place."

"Right." Lewis nodded slowly. "So just what were those things that attacked me?"

"Kishin Eggs." Maka explained. "They were once human souls who began feeding on other human souls, turning them into Kishin Eggs."

Lewis nodded. He already knew this stuff already, but he was having a hard time believing all of it. "So since I'm a weapon now I have to fight those things?"

"Yep. And then you get to eat their souls." Soul grinned. "Speaking of which…"

Soul quickly devoured both the pulsating red souls, giving a loud belch after he'd finished.

"Classy." Lewis said.

"You probably won't be sent out into the field immediately, that's just a bad idea. First of all you'll be taught how to control and maintain your transformations in one of the NOT classes." Maka explained. "If you're a good enough student, you might even get into an EAT class."

"So EAT classes are higher ranked?" Lewis asked.

"Yep." Maka nodded.

"S-so when was I going to join the DWMA?" Lewis asked.

"I'd expect in the next few days or so." Maka said.

"Hey, why so nervous? It's pretty much like any other school." Soul said.

Lewis looked upwards at the titanic and imposing castle that Soul and Maka called a school, with its red capped spires, many skull designs and enormous candles that gave a warm but haunting glow to the streets of Death City.

"Yeah, it's the monster fighting I'm worried about." Lewis mumbled.

*v*v*v*

*v*v*v*

A/N

A/N

A/N

Hey everyone, Shrubs here.

I'd like to ask that if you enjoyed this, or have some criticisms then please write a review. I'll be sure to read it.

Thanks.

-The Shrubbery King


	3. Chapter 3

Lewis' ribs felt as if they were about to be crushed. His head spun as the world tilted and whirled around him as the high-pitched squeals of Miss Sweetums filled his ears.

"I can't believe you're going to the DWMA! This is amazing!" she giggled excitedly as she sat him down gently on a stool. "I didn't know you were a Weapon!"

"Yeah, neither did I." Lewis said thoughtfully. "But I guess this isn't the weirdest thing to happen to me."

Melissa looked at Lewis from behind the counter with narrowed eyes and an unreadable expression. She was probably mad at him, but Lewis genuinely couldn't think what about.

"We'll have to get you some things! A backpack, pens, pencils…" Miss Sweetums rattled off, counting all the things Lewis would need on her fingers.

Melissa gave a small snort as she grabbed another magazine. "So what kind of weapon are you?"

Lewis looked at his left hand again. "I'm not sure." He said. "I don't really know any weapons that have a shackle on them."

"I guess a chain can be considered a weapon if you're some kind of delinquent." Melissa said dismissively.

"Hey, I'm no delinquent!" Lewis argued.

Sweetums clapped her hands together and looked at Lewis with big eyes. "Can you show us?"

"I guess I can try." Lewis said. He tried to focus on turning his forearm into the shackle like he did the night before. Although nothing really happened.

Miss Sweetums cocked her head to the side. "Are you doing it?"

"I don't really know how." Lewis shrugged. "I guess I just did it by accident."

Melissa gave an unimpressed humph, not that she was watching anyway. Miss Sweetums skimmed over the letter they'd received only that morning again.

"Apparently you'll be given an entrance examination." She said.

"What?! An exam?" Lewis gawked. "I haven't even studied anything! Wait, what would I study? I don't even know what the exam's on!"

"You're awfully neurotic today." Melissa grumbled.

"Calm down Lewis, it's just an examination. Not a written exam or anything." Miss Sweetums said kindly. "I'm sure you'll do fine."

Lewis gave a hesitant smile. "Thanks Miss Sweetums."

Melissa clapped her hands. "Alright, we'd best get to work."

"Oh!" Miss Sweetums realised. "I'd better do some paperwork. There's always so much."

Lewis nodded and flipped over the sign on the door to 'OPEN' and returned behind the counter.

"Hey Melissa, are you feeling okay?" Lewis asked.

"Oh yeah, just peachy." She snorted.

"Come on, don't act like that. Did I do something to upset you?"

"Other than betraying my trust, nothing."

"Betraying your trust?" Lewis echoed. "How? You've barely told me anything about yourself."

"You're a Weapon." She said, closing her magazine. "I thought you were normal, just like me. But as it turns out you're just another one of them."

"Wha-?" Lewis began.

"You all think you're so great, don't you? Meisters and Weapons, defenders of light and purity and all that bullshit." She glowered. "You don't care who you step on so long as people treat you better than normal people!"

"I've never said or done any of that!" Lewis rebutted. "And what is this about treating other people like dirt?"

"Just because you don't doesn't mean that others don't as well!" Melissa shouted. "Where I came from, anyone who wasn't a Weapon was treated like trash! Human garbage! I was almost killed more times than I'd like to talk about!"

Lewis stared at her with wide eyes. "Where is all of this coming from? Why are you telling me all of this?"

Melissa grabbed Lewis by the shirt and dragged him close. "Because you're a Weapon! I **hate** Weapons!"

"Just because I am one doesn't mean I'll act like that!" Lewis shouted back. "I still know what it means to be human. Besides, I'm not a total dick."

There was a loud crash as the door to Miss Sweetums' office flung open. Melissa and Lewis slowly turned to see Miss Sweetums clasping her hands tightly, her face a mask of restraint and serenity. Melissa loosened her grip on Lewis' shirt and they stood apart. Miss Sweetums walked over to them and pulled them both into a tight hug.

"You two really shouldn't fight. If you fight, then the negative feelings inside you only get stronger." She said calmly. "If you're always fighting, then you can't be friends."

Lewis nodded. "You're right. Melissa, you're one of the few friends I've made here. I don't want to offend you, but I can't help what I am."

Melissa made an uncomfortable sound before speaking. "I… I guess if you don't act like an ass then I'll be okay with it. I'm sorry for yelling at you."

"It's okay." Lewis nodded.

Miss Sweetums released the both of them and put her hands together. "Great! Friends really shouldn't fight each other. Now, let's get back to work. Customers could be coming in at any minute."

*v*v*v*

*v*v*v*

Lewis clutched the strap on his bag as he looked up the hundreds of stairs leading to the DWMA. Miss Sweetums had bought him quite a lot of stuff. New books, pencils and pens, a brown duffel bag to store it all in and, at Lewis' request, a woollen scarf that he wore over his mouth. It was pretty hot in Death City, but he wanted one mainly because he had one before and he thought it looked cool. Lewis had also finally removed the bandages covering his arms, but when everything he touched caused his skin to sting like he was sticking his hand in a sewing machine, he wrapped his arms again in a fresh roll of bandages.

"Guess it's time." Lewis said nervously, taking his first step on the stairs.

Lewis climbed the stairs without complaint, although he was feeling his legs starting to twinge at around the halfway point. By the time he got to the top, he was running out of breath.

"I really need to exercise more." He panted as he saw many other students walking through the entrance of the academy.

Lewis looked up at the DWMA building in awe. It was bigger than anything Lewis had ever seen before, with huge and slightly intimidating skull emblems all around it. He also noticed the three large black spheres hovering high above the academy.

'How do those things stay up?' he wondered. 'Eh, probably not important. Now where am I supposed to go?'

Lewis entered the academy, looking around for a reception desk. Looking around, he saw quite a few vaguely familiar faces, although most of them were forgettable and unrecognisable to Lewis. Eventually he found something that looked like a desk with a squat woman in a maroon suit jacket.

"Uh, excuse me. Is this the reception desk?" Lewis asked.

"Sure is. How can I help you?" she asked.

"I'm a new student. I was told that I was supposed to have an entrance examination somewhere." Lewis told her.

The woman took out a clipboard from under her desk and picked up a yellow pencil. "What's your name?"

"Lewis. Although I seem to have picked up the nickname Sky Kid."

"Oh yeah, I've heard about you." She said, ticking off something on the clipboard and handing a piece of paper to Lewis. "Your exam starts on the running track out the back of the academy. Just follow the instructions on that little slip of paper I gave you. Your instructor will be a woman named Nygus. Good luck!"

"Thanks." Lewis nodded. As he began to walk to the running track, he could hear a few whispers from the students around him. He couldn't determine exactly what they were saying, but the words 'Sky Kid' popped up quite a lot.

Lewis opened up a door to the outside to see a running track marked out in white paint in a courtyard. Looking around, he saw a woman covered from head to foot in white bandages carrying a clipboard. Lewis recognised her immediately as Nygus, Sid's usual partner.

"Ah, you must be the new student." She said. "Come on over, we'll get this test underway."

Lewis gave a nod as he dropped his bag and marched over.

"Now before we start, just a few questions." She said. "Have you ever been in a real fight before?"

"Uh, not really." Lewis said. "I punched a guy once, but that's about it."

"Well, at least you're not a troublemaker." She said. "Now I hear that you're enrolling as a Weapon. Do you have any control over your transformation?"

Lewis shook his head. "No. I don't really know how to do it at will. It just sort of happened the night before last night when I got jumped by a Kishin Egg."

Nygus looked up from her clipboard. "You were attacked by a Kishin Egg in Death City? That's very unusual."

"Two actually." Lewis nodded. "Fortunately Maka and Soul were there to save me. I probably wouldn't have made it otherwise."

"I see." Nygus said. "Well, I think that just about covers it for the questions. I think we should now move on to the fitness part of the examination. I'll time how long it takes for you to complete a one hundred metre dash."

Lewis lined up to start and noticed that there seemed to be a small crowd on the balcony above him. Most of them were watching with interest to see how he'd do.

"Go!" Nygus announced, pressing a button on her stopwatch.

Lewis jolted forward and began to sprint. From above, the crowd began to jostle as Black Star and Tsubaki made their way to the front.

"Ha! So he is here. I knew there was something weird about him!" Black Star said loudly. "The bastard was holding out on me!"

"I wonder what kind of Weapon he is." Tsubaki wondered.

"I heard he was some kind of Chain Weapon." One of the crowd said.

"No way, it was definitely a spear!" another chimed in.

"You're both idiots. I heard he was a Mace." A third one said bluntly.

Lewis threw himself over the finish line as Nygus stopped her watch.

"Fourteen point five seconds." She read aloud. "Not the most impressive score in history, but not the worst."

"I'm not really that athletic." Lewis said through haggard breath.

"Yes, but in the field academics can only take you so far." Nygus nodded. "While Weapons don't need to be as physically fit and capable as Meisters, you should still be in good physical shape in human form. A sound soul dwells within a sound mind and a sound body after all."

From above, Black Star was getting annoyed with all of the whispering about Lewis.

"Ooh, Sky Kid this, Sky Kid that. I'm the real star around here!" he shouted, jumping up onto the balcony wall. "Hey, Sky Kid! Prepare yourself! Yahooo!"

With that, Black Star leapt off the balcony with a flying kick. Seeing Black Star jump from the balcony, Lewis leapt forward and rolled as he landed, letting Black Star crash into the ground where Lewis was only moments ago.

"Black Star, we're trying to do this student's examination at the moment!" Nygus chastised.

"Well I'm going to give him one too! I'm going to see just how-" Black Star began.

While Black Star was busy talking, Lewis had quietly walked up to him and planted a foot right in his crotch. Black Star went stiff and crumpled to the ground, nursing his injuries. Nygus sighed and scribbled 'dishonest fighter' in the notes section of her clipboard.

"Well, I will commend you on one thing. That roll was excellent." Nygus said.

"I used to do gymnastics. I could never get the hang of doing a backflip though." Lewis explained.

"I think that should just about cover it, as far as figuring out which class you should be in." Nygus said. "All that's left is for the nurse to examine your health."

'Nurse?' thought Lewis, feeling his spine go icy and stiff. "Oh." He said in a small voice.

Nygus looked up at Lewis again. "Is something wrong?"

"No, no. I uh… I just have a small fear of needles." He lied. What he was really afraid of was the nurse.

"Don't worry. Injections aren't really a part of initial examinations." Nygus said reassuringly. "You'll be fine."

'God I hope so.' Lewis thought.

*v*v*v*

*v*v*v*

Lewis sat on a bed in the Nurse's Office, most of his hairs standing on end. Medusa. Lewis wondered if he should tell anyone. Then again, would they believe him? Medusa still had that Soul Protect spell of hers active. And even if he did manage to convince someone or even tell anyone, Medusa would find out and probably kill him. Or worse, make him some kind of slave or use him as an experiment. H really didn't want to end up like Eruka. Those snakes of hers were disturbing as all hell.

The door creaked open and in stepped Medusa, in her cover as the school nurse.

"Oh, hello there." She said amiably. "So you must be that new student that all the others are talking about. It's nice to finally meet you."

'Damn she's good at this.' Lewis thought before nodding. "Yep, that's me."

"Well, I suppose we'd better get your check up underway." She said, crossing the room and taking a seat on a stool. "Nygus tells me that you have a slight fear of needles. Don't worry, you've got absolutely no reason to be scared of me."

'That's the biggest load of bullshit I've ever heard!' Lewis screamed internally.

"Right. Now start by taking off your shirt and scarf." She said.

Lewis complied and Medusa took a look at his bandages.

"What are these bandages for?" Medusa asked.

"I had a nasty case of sunburn when I go here." Lewis answered.

"Ah, I see." She said, opening a drawer. "I believe I may have something that may help with that. Sunburn is quite common in Death City."

"Yeah, I'll bet." Lewis nodded.

Medusa picked out a vial of oily black liquid that she placed on the bed next to Lewis.

"There. That ointment should help with any blistering that might occur and reduce the risk of developing any melanomas." She said. "Now, I'll have to remove these bandages to continue on with the examination."

Lewis complied without complaint as Medusa went about the checkup. For how close he was to certain death, Lewis felt that he was handling the situation quite well. As in, he wasn't screaming in pants-shitting terror and climbing the curtains in an effort to get away. The Snake Witch was right in front of him, but here she was giving him a checkup like any other regular school nurse. Eventually Medusa finished up with the checkup and picked up the jar of ointment.

"I'll spread some of this on your sunburn for you. After that I'll wrap your arms in fresh bandages if you want." She said, opening the jar and releasing a miasma of foul smell before spreading it on Lewis' arms. "It doesn't look too bad. Your skin should be quite sensitive for the next few days, but this will help somewhat. It looks like you've already taken measures about it as well."

"Yeah, thanks. Miss Sweetums has been a big help." Lewis agreed.

"Hm? Who might that be?" she asked, spreading the ointment on Lewis' sunburn and causing it to sting.

"She's the one who found me outside Death City. She runs the Black Bean, a coffee shop not far from here. I work the counter." Lewis answered.

"Oh? I must visit some time." She smiled.

'Shit!' Lewis screamed mentally.

"Well, I think that will just about do it." Medusa said, wrapping Lewis' arms back up in bandages. "You seem quite healthy, although some exercise should do you some good. Fortunately you'll be getting a lot of that in your classes."

"Alright, thank you." Lewis nodded, putting his shirt back on. "Anything else?"

"I think that you should return to Nygus. After I give her your results she should be able to tell you which classes you're in." she said. "Until then, you should have a few minutes to yourself."

Lewis gave another nod. He opened the door into the corridor and closed it behind him, taking a deep breath and a sigh of relief. He was really glad to be out of there. Even though she was undercover, Medusa was still extremely dange-

Lewis' thoughts were interrupted when out of nowhere, Black Star dropkicked him in the head with a loud yell. Lewis skidded across the ground, his world spinning like a carousel hooked up to a jet engine.

"Yeah! And that's why you never mess with Black Star!" he shouted, raising a fist in triumph. "I'm the greatest assassin to ever live, so a low blow like that isn't gonna keep me down! And don't you forget it!"

Lewis couldn't reply, as he was too busy trying to figure out which direction was up at the moment. The door opened again as Medusa opened the door to her office and sighed.

"I think that boy has just broken some kind of record." She said to herself. "It hasn't even been a minute and he's already back in my office."

*v*v*v*

*v*v*v*

Lewis wasn't happy that he was back in Medusa's office. Fortunately he was only there for a few more minutes as Medusa only had to deal with some minor bruising and to check if he didn't have a concussion. Fortunately he didn't, so Lewis was allowed to leave. Outside the nurse's office, Nygus was waiting for him.

"Ah, there you are. It seems Black Star had paid you a visit after you taught him a thing about bravado." Nygus chuckled.

"Yeah. What's with that guy anyway?" Lewis asked, stretching his neck.

"He may be a little… excitable, but he's an extremely gifted Meister." Nygus explained. "But enough about Black Star. Nurse Medusa has given me your health report. Good news, you're fit for classes. You'll be entering one of the NOT classes to work on your weapon transformation. After that we'll see if we can work on finding you a Meister."

"Okay. When do I start?" Lewis asked.

"Classes start tomorrow, so just take the rest of the day to have a look around the campus." Nygus suggested. "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go do some paperwork. Have fun."

"Thanks." Lewis said as Nygus walked away.

It seemed that classes were over for the moment as students were busying themselves with lunch or extra studies. Lewis ambled around, looking at the various twists and turns of the corridors in an effort to remember their network. Eventually he found himself on a large balcony overlooking Death City. Walking up to the edge, Lewis took in the incredible view. The city below stretched a long distance before it flattened out into empty, desolate desert. From where Lewis was standing, Death City looked like the most isolated thing in the world, like it was the only thing left.

"I wasn't expecting to see you here of all places, Sky Kid." Said a bemused voice from behind Lewis.

Turning around, Lewis saw Ox Ford accompanied by his partner in thin red glasses, Havar.

"Oh hey, you're Ox aren't you? You came into the Black Bean one day." Lewis said.

"I'm pleased to see you remember me." He said before motioning to his partner. "This is Havar. He's my Weapon."

"Nice to meet you." Lewis nodded, extending his hand.

"Likewise." Havar said as he shook Lewis' hand.

"If you don't mind me saying, what are you doing here?" Ox asked.

"Well as it turns out, I'm a Weapon." Lewis shrugged. "I've no idea how it happened, I guess it just kinda did."

"Really?" Ox asked. "I suppose we'll be seeing you in a lot more classes."

"I don't think so." Lewis chuckled. "I've been assigned to the NOT classes. I can't transform at will yet. I don't even know what kind of Weapon I am yet."

"Surely you have some idea." Havar said.

"Well, it's something with a chain and a shackle." Lewis answered.

Ox and Havar looked at each other and shrugged.

"I've never heard of any weapon that has a chain and a shackle." Havar said.

"It certainly is strange." Ox mused. "You're getting more interesting by the day, Sky Kid."

"My name's Lewis by the way." He said. "Having a nickname is cool and all, but I like it when people talk to me using my actual name."

Ox gave a polite smile and nodded. "Alright Lewis. It's been good to meet you, but I think I must be going. I've got some books I need to return to the academy library."

"Bye." Havar waved as he joined Ox.

"Oh, Havar wait! I wanted to ask you something." Lewis said.

Havar stopped and turned back to Lewis. "Did you need something?"

"You're a Weapon, right? Could you give me any tips on how to transform?" Lewis asked.

Havar hummed for a second as he thought. "Not really. The thing is all weapons are different, so if you don't fully know what kind of a weapon you are it'll be a little trickier for you. I'd suggest letting your teachers fill you in on that."

Lewis gave an appreciative nod. "Thanks anyway."

"No problem." He responded as he rushed off to catch up with Ox.

\Lewis turned back to the balcony and stared out into the horizon again as he became lost in thought. It really wasn't so bad here. It was pretty much normal, except for the fact that people were able to turn into living weapons. Well, there was also that whole thing about magic, Kishin Eggs and Witches. As Lewis thought more about Witches, his mind drifted back to Medusa. What should he do about her? He knew he couldn't go running around organising a witch hunt, however appropriate that may be. Medusa was too cunning to get caught by such a thing. Besides, he only knew one person who might believe him or take him seriously, and that was Professor Stein. However Lewis felt that the less contact he had with Stein, the better off he'd be. He was supposed to be on their side, but that didn't mean he wasn't creeped out by the guy. But still, Lewis knew that Medusa was going to hurt a lot of people and cause a lot of damage. And then there was Crona. What should he do if he met Crona? Maybe he could finally ask Crona just what gender he, or she, really was. It might be rude, but Lewis honestly had no idea.

Giving another sigh Lewis jammed his hands into his pocket, his fingers running over the smooth glass surface of the bottle of ointment Medusa gave to him. Taking it out of his pocket, Lewis held it up to the light. It was so black it was completely opaque, even when he held it in front of the sun. This was one of the reasons he didn't trust it. First of all, it was from Medusa. That much on its own was enough to make him want to hurl it off the balcony. But when it stank like it did and was completely black, Lewis really didn't want to have much to do with it. But it did seem to be numbing the pain on his sunburn.

'I guess I'll keep it.' Lewis thought to himself, slipping the bottle into his pocket.

He suspected it mostly because it could be another of Medusa's experiments, of which she was awfully fond of. Maybe Medusa's Black Blood? She seemed awfully fond of putting that into just about anything she could get her grubby little mitts on. If he was infected, he could probably ask Stein to basically transfuse his entire bloodstream and he'd happily oblige. Blood was only blood after all, black or otherwise.

'Hey. I wonder if that might be a way to separate Crona and Ragnarok.' Lewis thought. 'Although, would it even be beneficial to separate them? Crona's fighting style has been pretty much based around hardening the black blood. If that were to be removed and Crona got into a fight, whatever was fighting Crona would cleave him or her in two!'

Lewis heard footsteps as a hand tapped him on the shoulder. Turning around, he saw both Maka and Soul.

"Hey Lewis." Maka said chirpily. "So you enrolled today? That's pretty great."

"Yep. I got the letter two days ago." He said.

"So which class did you get into?" Soul asked.

"One of the NOT classes." Lewis answered.

"Really?" Soul snorted. "Well I guess it figures. You don't really know how to do anything as a Weapon yet do you?"

"Nope. Although I did get some advice from Havar." Lewis said.

"You know Havar?" Maka asked.

"Yeah, he and Ox talked to me just a few minutes ago." Lewis said.

"Good to know you're meeting new people." Soul nodded. "Although I kinda wanted to be the cool mentor kinda guy."

"Well that spot's still open. I've got a lot to learn about being a Weapon." Lewis said.

"I guess so." Soul smirked. "Hey, how about we start early? I could show you a couple of tips on transforming."

"That'd be pretty cool." Lewis nodded.

"Hey, it's what I'm all about." Soul grinned.

A bell tolled from deep within the Academy as students began filing back into the building.

"Ah shoot. Time for class again." Soul grumbled. "Hey Lewis, you wanna meet over at the basketball courts later? I could show you then."

"Sure!" Lewis nodded. "Thanks man."

"Don't sweat it." Soul said. "Catch ya later."

"Bye." Maka waved.

Lewis returned with a wave of his own as he looked up at the academy reaching into the sky before him. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad here after all.

*v*v*v*

*v*v*v*

Lewis sat on the green park bench in the basketball courts with one leg crossed over the other, looking into the canopy of the single tree above him. Soul sure was taking his sweet time, but he was a fairly easy-going person from what Lewis could recall.

'Too bad so much shit is coming their way.' Lewis thought. 'Man, it's really hard knowing all the bad things that are going to happen to people.'

Hearing footsteps, Lewis looked over to the gap in the wall where Maka and Soul walked in, along with Black Star and Tsubaki, Liz, Patty and Kid who was concentrating intently on carrying a basketball to maintain its symmetry.

"Hey guys." Lewis said with a wave of his hand.

"Good to see you again." Soul nodded.

"You're pretty brave to show your face to me after what you did!" Black Star shouted.

Lewis frowned. "Is there any time you don't shout like a lunatic?"

"Are you lookin' for a fight?!" Black Star challenged.

"Nah not really." Lewis said as he got up. "Soul said he'd show me some stuff about transforming into a Weapon."

"It's pretty easy once you get the hang of it." Liz said.

"Yep!" Patty agreed. "Hey, do we have anyone who can use him? I mean, it's really cold on the ground."

"I don't think he can fully transform himself yet." Maka said. "When we first saw him it was a partial transformation, so he should probably work on that."

Lewis nodded in agreement. "So what do I have to do?"

"Alright, let's see." He said, putting a finger to his chin in thought. "I guess you should start trying to transform your hand like Maka said. What you've got to do is just imagine yourself glowing with light and transforming into a weapon."

"Is it really that easy?" Lewis asked, looking at his hand. "Well I guess I'll try it."

Lewis closed his eyes and imagined what Soul had told him. He'd seen it happen quite a few times in the show, as well as in person when Maka and Soul defended him from those Kishin Eggs. He just had to concentrate…

A jangling sound beside him caused Lewis to open his eyes and look down. His arm had once again turned into a length of chain, a thick round shackle at the end of it. Picking it up in his hand, he twirled it around.

"I guess that really was that easy." Lewis said.

"A full transformation is a lot harder, but you seem to be getting the hang of it." Said a new voice as a corpse entered the basketball court. "Mind if I join you kids?"

"Oh, hello Sid." Maka said politely. "What are you doing here?"

"Just following up on our new student." He said. "So, you're that Sky Kid all the students have been chattering about. Lewis, if I'm not mistaken."

Lewis nodded, the chain his arm had become slowly coming to a halt. "Um… You're really a-"

"Zombie? Yeah." Sid shrugged. "It's not so bad."

Lewis nodded slowly, thinking of how to change the topic. Fortunately, it seemed that Sid was prepared to do that for him.

"So, you kids have been coaching Lewis on weapon transformations?" He asked.

"I think I've got the hang of partial transformation. Lewis said. "Although it's hard to tell what kind of weapon I am, so I don't know what to do next."

"It should come to you eventually. Just keep at it. That's just about all the advice I can give on that topic." Sid said, putting a hand into his back pocket and pulling out a folded sheet of paper. "But I'm here on a different matter. Your timetable's been sorted out and you've been placed into classes that will help you develop."

Lewis took the sheet and skimmed over it, noticing one name in particular. "Hey, I'm going to be taught by Leo!"

"You know him?" Sid asked.

"Yeah." Lewis nodded. "He comes into the Black Bean pretty regularly from what Melissa tells me."

"I see." Sid nodded. "Well in that case you'll probably get on well with him. But know that you've also got me as one of your teachers, so don't be late."

Lewis gave a nod and Sid began to walk off, pausing in front of the blue haired assassin.

"Black Star, remember to do your homework. You're not going out on any more missions until that assignment's been handed in." he said.

"What?! Aw come on!" Black Star shouted as Sid wandered off without another word.

Lewis tried turning his left arm back into its normal form. But as he did, he felt his right leg give out and Lewis crumpled to the ground.

"Ow! What the… hell?" Lewis asked as he looked at his leg. It had disappeared at the knee, his shin and foot now replaced with a wide double edged blade.

"Whoa. Does that mean he's some kind of sword?" Black Star asked as they all started crowding around.

"I've never known any kind of sword with a shackle or a chain attached to it." Tsubaki said quietly.

"You're weird!" Patty laughed.

"Yeah, thanks." Lewis grunted. "Can someone help me up?"

Maka and Kid got Lewis back to his feet as he turned his leg back to its normal form, stamping it on the concrete a few times just to make sure it was really there.

"Today has been a weird day for me." Lewis concluded.

"Speaking of day, we should probably start our game." Soul said, picking up the forgotten basketball. "We've only got a few hours left in the day, so let's make use of them!"

Soul tossed the ball to Lewis, who caught it.

"Come on, let's play." Maka said.

'Man, is this really happening?' Lewis thought to himself. 'It just seems so surreal. Not even a week ago and all of these guys were nothing more than characters. But now I'm seeing them right in front of me. How weird is that?'

"Are you feeling alright?" Kid asked.

Lewis snapped out of his thoughts and nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"So let's play already!" Black Star called.

Giving a wide grin, Lewis jumped and tossed the ball towards the hoop, where it bounced off the hoop at a weird angle and hit Black Star in the head.


	4. Chapter 4

Lewis leant heavily on the desk as he listened to some faceless teacher warble on about something that for some reason or another, Lewis couldn't fully make out. Now that he looked closer, it seemed that the teacher really was completely faceless.

Turning to the side, Lewis saw Soul sitting there looking just as bored as he was.

"I didn't know you were in my class." Lewis said.

Soul turned his head to answer, but out of his mouth poured black oil that began filling up Lewis' vision.

Moments later, Lewis was outside under a tree. It took him a moment to realise that he was back in the basketball courts. His arm had turned into its shackle form, his leg into the sword blade. And for some reason his right hand had transformed into a yellow rubber duck.

"Quack!" said the rubber duck.

"Well fuck you too." Lewis said in a very offended tone. "I never asked for this."

Suddenly the duck opened a third vertical eye on its forehead as the rest of its eyes shifted to a vertical position, grey and misshapen teeth sprouting from its beak.

"Quack?!" Lewis gasped as the duck hand began to grow in size, its rubbery wings spread wide as it began to cry like an eagle. The duck's head quickly rushed towards Lewis, mouth wide open.

Lewis' eyes snapped open, ending the dream. Looking around, he saw he was just sleeping in the break room of the Black Bean, as he always did. Nestling his head in the crook of his arm, he sighed heavily.

"I don't even know if that was a dream or a nightmare." He murmured. "I mean Jesus Christ, what the fu-"

The door creaked open as Melissa walked into the room, toothbrush in her mouth.

"Mmm? Hy Lwish." She said through a mouthful of toothpaste.

"Oh. Hi Melissa." Lewis waved.

Melissa wandered over to the sink in the break room and spat out the toothpaste. "So, how was the Academy?"

"It was okay." Lewis said as he got into a sitting position. "I met a bunch of people. They seem pretty cool."

"So did you learn anything about your transformation?" Melissa asked.

"Only something that raises further questions. Check this out." Lewis said, taking his right leg out from under the blanket and transforming it into its blade form.

"Oh, you learned how to control your transformation. So you're a broadsword type huh?" Melissa asked.

"I'm not so sure." Lewis said, turning his leg back to normal. "My arm is still a shackle and chain."

Melissa's head tilted in confusion. "So do you think you might have multiple forms?"

"Maybe?" Lewis guessed as he got up. "I really don't know for sure, since I still haven't done a full transformation. So I guess I'll just have to wait and see."

Melissa nodded and looked at the clock high on the wall. "Hey, aren't you supposed to be at the academy soon?"

Lewis looked up to the clock and gasped. "Oh crap you're right!"

Lewis threw off the blanket and leapt from the couch, grabbing his bag as he scampered towards the door. Melissa stared after him and chuckled.

"What a nutjob." She snorted as she went about her business.

*v*v*v*

*v*v*v*

Fortunately, Lewis had made it to class just as the roll was starting to be marked. Lewis took his seat as his name was called, next to a girl in headphones with lengthy black hair listening to blaring music and a vaguely familiar girl in glasses.

"Oh, hey Sky Kid! I thought I heard that you were a student now." She whispered.

"Huh? Oh. Yeah, I guess I am." Lewis responded quietly. "I don't think we've been introduced. My name's Lewis."

"I'm Brianna." She replied. "You make some really good coffee!"

"Thanks." Lewis nodded. He remembered where he saw her now. She was one of the three girls that regularly visited the Black Bean. He was genuinely surprised at how little attention he paid to people around him. Brianna wore her chestnut hair in a side ponytail and had a white tank top with an open front brown hoodie over the top and simple black cotton pants that came down to a white pair of sneakers.

"So did you enrol as a Meister or a Weapon?" Brianna asked.

"A Weapon, but I'm not sure what kind." Lewis shrugged.

Brianna gave a smile. "Well I'm sure you'll figure it out."

"Hey!" called the teacher, a large book in hand. "No gossiping up the back!"

"Ah! Sorry ma'am!" Brianna squeaked.

The teacher raised an eyebrow as she spotted the new student in her class. "You there, the one with the scarf. You're our newest student aren't you?"

"That's right." Lewis said.

The woman gave a toothy grin. "Well, allow me to introduce myself. I am your Homeroom teacher, Mrs Goldburn. Why don't you introduce yourself to your classmates?"

Nodding, Lewis stood up at his seat. "Hello everyone, my name is Lewis. Although you probably all know me as the Sky Kid by now. I recently found out I'm a weapon, although I'm a little unsure what kind I actually am since I haven't completed a full-body transformation yet."

Lewis retook his seat and homeroom continued. Opening up a sheet of paper that he had in his pocket, he began to read his timetable. He was really surprised how much of it was athletics training, and there was this new Soul Studies class that he knew pretty much nothing about. As for the rest, it was your standard faire with maths, English and history classes.

"Hey, what do you have next?" Brianna asked, leaning over to Lewis.

"I think I've got Soul Studies. Today is Thursday, right?" Lewis asked.

"Yep." She nodded. "In fact, I think we're in the same class!"

"Great. Do you think you can show me the way? The layout of this place is still a mystery to me." Lewis said.

"Sure!" Brianna smiled.

The bell began to toll as students began to shift from their spots. In Lewis' experience it was more of a shrill ring, so this brassy tolling was a welcome change. Lewis and Brianna collected their things and left, Lewis trailing slightly behind Brianna.

"I think you'll really like my friends. They're really nice." Brianna smiled.

"I hope so." Lewis nodded as they entered a new room.

The classroom was much like many of the others he'd seen with a dark tiled floor, a large blackboard and a semicircle of tall seats looking down into the teacher's area. Currently residing that space was Leo, who was scrawling a few things on the chalkboard when Brianna and Lewis wandered in.

"Ah, Brianna. You're earlier than usual." He observed.

"I'm helping my new friend find his way around." Brianna said. "This is Lewis, he's new."

"Yes, we have met." Leo nodded. "In fact I was there when Miss Sweetums first brought him in."

"Oh, I remember now." Brianna said with embarrassment.

"Now Lewis, I take it you know a few things about this class?" Leo asked.

"Only a little." Lewis admitted.

Leo gave a smile. "Well I look forward to teaching you the rest. Now take a seat with the rest of the students."

Brianna nodded and took Lewis to a seat next to her as her two other friends joined them.

"Ohmygosh, is that the Sky Kid?" one of them with dark skin and vibrant orange hair asked excitedly. "Brianna, are you showing him around?"

"Yep." She smiled. "Lewis, these are my friends Vera and Helena."

"Hiya!" Helena smiled, giving a wave as she did.

"Howdy." Said Vera with a gentle country accent.

Helena was dressed in a short white dress with a simple belt and Greek sandals, her long orange hair swept behind her back. Vera on the other hand had much shorter brown hair with a single light blue highlight, done in a small braid at the back and wore a black collared shirt with a small skull design on the breast pocket and a light blue pair of jeans ripped at the knees. However Vera also wore brown cowboy boots and a pair of brown fingerless leather gloves.

'Only in this kind of world are hair colours like that normal.' Lewis thought as he finished staring at Helena's hair. "You've got some unusual friends. That's pretty cool." he said to Brianna. "It's good to meet you guys. So are you guys Meisters?"

"I'm a Weapon. A Sarissa to be exact!" Helena said proudly.

"What's that?" Lewis asked.

"It's this huge spear about 21 feet long." Brianna said. "I should know, since I'm her Meister and all."

"That's like, six and a half metres!" Lewis exclaimed in disbelief. "How the hell do you fight alone with something that long?"

Brianna adjusted her glasses, making them sparkle. "Well I suppose you could say I'm quite experienced with **extremely** long shafts."

"Ugh! Brianna!" Helena whined, turning red with embarrassment. "Those kinds of jokes are really embarrassing!"

"I'm sorry, but it was just too good to resist!" Brianna laughed.

"I… see. So what about you Vera?" Lewis asked.

"Me? Oh… ah'm a Meister, but… well, ah've not really found a Weapon ah can resonate with." Vera admitted sheepishly.

Glasses shining, Brianna leant forward. "Y'know, Lewis here just so happens to be a Weapon."

Vera's expression didn't really change, but she nodded. "That's nice." She said.

"I still don't exactly know what kind of weapon I am exactly." Lewis shrugged. "But that's why I'm here."

Leo clapped loudly as the bustle of the students began to die down. "Alright class, let's get started! Now, who can tell me the answer to this question?"

*v*v*v*

*v*v*v*

The lesson seemed to pass without much incident. That was until they got to a period that was labelled as 'Combat Training'. Their instructor, much to Lewis' surprise, was Sid himself. Lewis had thought that Sid would be teaching the EAT students fitness and stuff. He had thought that he would be teaching NOT students only the theory stuff. They met out at the track and field out the back of the DWMA where several racks of wooden weapons of various kinds had been set up.

"Alright everyone, listen up! Your performance over the past few weeks has been lacking in some respects, so before we get started with sparring I want each of your to do three laps of the track. Get to it!" Sid shouted, much to the vocal disappointment of the entire class.

Lewis grouped up with the rest of the students as they began their run. The running track was much longer than Lewis thought and the other students quickly began to leave him behind.

"Hey! No slacking off Lewis, keep up with the rest of the group!" Sid shouted. Turning his head, he saw that Sid was running right behind them!

"Whoa! Why are you running with us?" Lewis gawked.

"Just because I'm training my students, that doesn't mean I'm allowed to give any slack. That's just the kind of man I was." He responded. "Now keep up! If you fall behind me you have to do double laps!"

"Y-yes sir!" Lewis gulped as he struggled to keep pace with the rest of the class.

By the time that the laps were over, Lewis was exhausted. However most of the more experienced students were relatively fine. Sid looked at Lewis and gave a small snort.

"It seems that you'll need a little more fitness training." He said before addressing the rest of the class. "Alright, I want the Weapons to begin practicing their transformations. Meisters! Grab some of the training weapons and get into groups of two for sparring."

The class parted as each group began to focus on their own tasks. Lewis shrugged and turned his arm into a chain. A few weapons around him gasped and stared.

"Whoa, you transformed that easily?" one asked.

"So cool!" another said.

"How did you do that? Come on, tell us!"

Lewis chuckled nervously. "Well, I just did it how a friend of mine said. He told me you just imagine how your arm turning into light and then kind of just changing into the weapon's shape."

"That's right." Sid nodded as he approached. "Weapon transformation has nothing to do with willpower or strength of mind. It's easy once you get your head around it. Concentrate on transforming one body part at a time."

Lewis nodded and stood up on his left leg, turning his right leg into a sword blade. This got another small sound of awe.

"So you're progressing with your transformations." Sid observed. "Good work. Keep at it. You might be able to fully transform. **If** you put in the effort."

With that, Sid left to go monitor the other students and give words of encouragement where necessary. Students around Lewis got back to practicing their own transformations, various sharp bits, blunt edges or the occasional point coming out at various parts of their body. Lewis meanwhile was thinking while still standing on his remaining normal leg. What if the chain and shackle was just some kind of attachment to a normal sword? Lewis closed his eyes and tried to mentally picture what a sword like that might be like. Where would the chain and shackle be attached? Well, replacing the pommel was an obvious place, but logically that'd unbalance the sword. But in a world of magic and living weapons, logic wasn't exactly a common thing. So Lewis tried envisioning his entire body transforming.

Lewis' eyes opened with a start as his remaining leg gave out and he fell to the dusty ground.

"What the? Hey, someone help me up! I can't move!" Lewis called out.

The three people around Lewis stood over him, looking down at him with disbelief.

"Whoa, the Sky Kid did it!"

"He really is a prodigy!" his friend agreed.

"Alright kids, out of the way." Sid said, moving them to the side and kneeling down. "Honestly I didn't anticipate you to get this far in one lesson, but you seem to have completed a full body transformation."

"What? Really?" Lewis asked.

Sid nodded. "I think you should change back now."

"Hold on, can someone get a picture first?" Lewis asked.

"I got it." The girl with long black hair and headphones said quickly, whipping out her phone and taking a few pictures. "Okay done."

Lewis concentrated as he changed back to his human form, now sprawled out on the ground. Getting into a seated position, he looked at his weapon form in the photos the other student had taken. The blade was wide and pointed with a charcoal black shine to it. The crossguard was a long and thin circular rod that protected a black grip. At the very end replacing the pommel was a long length of thick chain with the round iron shackle at the end.

"Weird." Lewis said, looking closely at the picture. "So that's me?"

Sid gave another nod. "You seem to have the transformation down pretty well. I think it's time for you to start looking for a partner."

Lewis grinned happily as he got to his feet. "Thanks sir!"

"But that doesn't mean I'm letting you slack off." Sid said sternly. "For the rest of the class I want you to do laps. Get to it!"

*v*v*v*

*v*v*v*

By the time the day was over, Lewis was physically and mentally exhausted. A lot of the familiar subjects he had like maths and English had elements in them that was hard to wrap his head around. How the hell was he supposed to know the circumference of a Kishin Egg's soul?

Lewis was deciding to take a scenic route back to the Black Bean. He'd mapped it out and knew his way home from the park. It was surprisingly deserted. The trees were large and shady, shrouding the entire park in a dense shadow in the evening light. Lewis took a seat under one of the trees with a heavy groan, looking up at the stars that were slowly poking through the amethyst skies. Lewis put his hands behind his head as he rested against the tree and stared out into the sky. It was beautiful.

Another pair of footsteps entered the park, but Lewis didn't really think anything of it. Next there was a lot of shuffling, sounds of effort and eventually a zapping sound accompanied by a spark of bluish light. Lewis peered around the tree he was sitting behind, seeing a schoolbag resting by one of the trees. Quietly making his way over to another tree, he saw who the bag belonged to.

Vera.

She thrust her arm forward again and a small spark of lightning briefly shone in the darkness and disappeared just as fast. Vera breathed deeply and began to try it again with her other hand. Stepping out from behind the tree, Lewis approached.

"Hey Vera." He said.

Vera jumped in surprise, giving a startled yelp. Whirling around, she saw Lewis standing there.

"L-Lewis? What are you d-doing out here?" she asked fearfully.

"I was just coming down here to relax." He said, moving closer. "What was that thing you did?"

"Thing? What thing? Ah don't really know what you're talking about." She chuckled nervously.

"I mean the thing you did with your hands. The lightning thing." Lewis said, hoping that would narrow it down a bit.

Vera looked down at the ground in shame. "You… you saw that?"

"Yeah, it was incredible!" Lewis said excitedly.

"No it's not." She said. "It's magic."

"Magic?" Lewis asked.

"Ah… Ah think ah might be a Witch." She said. "Ah jist don't know how else to explain it! Please don't tell anyone about this Lewis, ah beg you! If… if anyone were to find out ah'd be thrown out of the DWMA, or worse!"

"Hey, calm down." Lewis said quickly. "I think I know what it is you did exactly, and it certainly isn't magic."

"Huh?"

"It's actually an extremely rare and powerful technique exclusive to Meisters, and even then it's incredibly rare. It's called _Soul Force_." Lewis explained. "It's done by using a person's own soul like a weapon, using it to amplify their own wavelength. Or, something like that. I only read about it in a book I borrowed from the library."

Vera looked down at her hand. " _Soul Force…_ "

"Yep. Very few people have it. The only other two people I know who can use _Soul Force_ are Professor Stein and Black Star." Lewis said.

"Black Star?" Vera gasped, blushing profusely. "You know Black Star? Is… Is he your friend?"

Lewis gave a chuckle. "Friend? Well, he did dropkick me in the head just yesterday. It's surprising how forgiving I'm being about that. Then again, I did kick him in the nuts before that, so I guess it was karmatically even. Sure, let's go with friend. Do you… like him or something?"

"Ah… uh… Ah mean… that is to say…" Vera burbled, only blushing harder. "Well… he's such a strong fighter! Ah mean… those **triceps** …"

'So that might be why she has that highlight in her hair.' Lewis thought before he cleared his throat. "Well, if you want to learn more about it, you can probably learn from Professor Stein."

"Oh! Ah couldn't do that." She said fearfully. "He's… he's just so creepy. Have you heard the stories about his classes? They say that every lesson they have with him is jus' dissecting some poor new critter. Ah heard they even dissected an animal from an endangered species!"

Lewis chuckled slightly. "Yeah, he is kind of a nutjob."

Vera didn't look at all comforted by this.

"Hey, I've got an idea." Lewis said, holding out his hand. "How about we both go to see him tomorrow? He can't possibly dissect the both of us. Deal?"

Vera looked hesitant for a moment before shaking Lewis' hand. "Deal."

As they shook hands, Lewis could feel something strange in his hands. A sharp twinge and tingling, like what he felt when he first transformed. But he could also feel it at his core, the centre of his being. Vera seemed to feel it as well as they both pulled their hands away. Lewis stood in silence for a moment, rubbing his hand.

"What was that?" he asked.

Vera murmured something before looking up, realising how late it was getting. "Ah should be going. See you tomorrow!"

Without another word she ran off, grabbing her bag as she did. Lewis was now alone in the park.

"I guess I'd better get some sleep too." He yawned. "Man, what a day."

*v*v*v*

*v*v*v*

The halls of the DWMA were bustling as Lewis walked through with his other classmates. He hadn't seen any of the others yet, so he'd been given some time to think. Everything that was happening lately was just going so fast, like his life had just been put into the fast lane. He'd arrived at a new school, already he had a bunch of friends, and he seemed to be a natural at weapon transformations. In fact, it seemed to Lewis like it was going too fast. It really should've been harder than this. All those other students were struggling with their weapon transformations, but he'd been able to do it as simple as thinking about it. And then how amazingly convenient it was to meet every single one of the main characters, as well as Ox and Havar. Of course, there was also Vera, Helena and Brianna.

'How did I even become a weapon in the first place? I thought you had to have some kind of special gene to be able to be a weapon.' Lewis thought to himself, having been reminded of this fact from one of the books he had borrowed from the library. 'Yet here I am, not even from this world and I'm doing everything in a breeze. Is there something affecting me?'

Lewis' mind immediately thought of the foul smelling black ointment Medusa gave him. Sure, she said it was for his sunburn, but it could well have a more nefarious purpose, like using it to implant him with snakes that would spy on his thoughts! Then again, that kind of thinking was just pure speculation. Medusa had literally no reason to suspect Lewis of anything. Sure, there were rumours about how he fell from the sky that were as varied as they were embellished, but that was about it. Besides, his place of residence was a tiny niche coffee shop in a forgotten alleyway, so he wasn't exactly mingling with the most influential of society. Maybe it was something that was amplifying his abilities? Lewis didn't really have any clue why she would do that, but it was possible. But just how did he become a weapon in the first place?

"Hey! Lewis! There you are!" Helena called from the opposite end of the corridor as she ran towards him. "Vera was looking for you!"

"Huh?" Lewis asked, breaking from his thoughts as Helena stopped in front of him. "Oh right! We were supposed to go talk to Professor Stein today! Do you know where he usually is?"

"Vera's waiting outside the classroom he was just in." She said, grabbing Lewis' wrist. "Come on, hurry!"

Helena led Lewis through the corridors until they eventually found Vera standing outside the door of one of the classrooms.

"I found him for you!" Helena called as they approached. "Now I uh… I've got study to do so bye!"

"Thank you kindly Helena." Vera said as Helena quickly dashed away. "Hello Lewis."

"Hi Vera." He nodded. "So, are you ready?"

Vera shifted uncomfortably. "Well…"

Without warning the door opened as the rattle of Professor Stein's computer chair rumbled out. Unfortunately he'd still forgotten about the little guide rail on the floor and his chair tossed the professor from his seat, landing with a crash on the opposite wall. Vera looked at him aghast as he looked at them through his thick glasses.

"Oh. Good morning you two. Did you need something?" he asked, righting himself and his chair.

"Do you mind if I tell him?" Lewis asked Vera.

Vera balled up her hands and made a determined face. "No, I'll do it." She said. "Professor Stein, ah have something to show you."

The professor sat down on his chair, folding his arms on the backrest. "Go right ahead."

A bead of sweat rolled down Vera's forehead as she prepared herself. Thrusting her hand out in front of her, she focused on projecting her soul's wavelength until sparks could be seen at her fingertips. Professor Stein straightened as he put a hand on Vera's forearm.

"That's enough." He said. Vera dropped her arm to her side as the professor turned the screw in the side of his head. "You have a rare gift. That kind of direct attack using your soul's own wavelength is called _Soul Menace_."

"Huh?" Both Lewis and Vera exclaimed.

'Hold on, wasn't it called _Soul Force_?' Lewis thought.

"It's extremely powerful when used correctly, as it can directly assault the enemy's soul." Stein explained.

Vera nodded. "Lewis told me about it, but he called it _Soul Force._ He said that ah should come to see you to know more about it."

"He did, did he?" Stein asked, large round glasses shining in the light. "Might I ask how you came to know of _Soul Menace_?"

"I read about it in a book I borrowed from the library." Lewis gave his default excuse. "It was a history on Meisters and Weapons. I forget some of the details though."

Stein gave a quizzical look before nodding. "I see. Well, it's clear you're quite learned."

Lewis gave a single nod as Stein turned back to Vera. "You should continue practicing that ability of yours. It may serve you well if you continue to develop it."

"Yes Professor." Vera nodded.

"Now, I must go check on some... experiments." He said happily before kicking himself off a wall and rolling down the hallway.

Stein's eyes narrowed in thought. 'He is very strange. He knows things that in all likelihood he shouldn't. Something isn't right about him. But without proof of anything, all I can do is watch.'

Lewis meanwhile had a different thought as he watched the unhinged professor roll away.

'I could have **sworn** it was _Soul Force_.' He thought.

*v*v*v*

*v*v*v*

Sid stood with his arms crossed in front of his seated students in the track area.

"Alright students, time for some more fitness training. You know the drill, three laps around the track to start off, and we'll go from there." He ordered.

As Lewis was about to join the rest of them, Sid pulled him away from the group.

"Not you kid. Since you've accomplished a successful full-body transformation I think it's time for you to start looking for a Meister." Sid said.

"Really?" Lewis asked. "Does that mean I have to go out on missions?"

Sid gave a nod, leading Lewis back to the DWMA building. "Eventually, yes. But first you'll be given a period of time to get to know each other and begin training together to get to know each other's movements. That way you'll become a much more cohesive fighting force."

Lewis gave a gulp. Training was all well and good. That was essentially just physical theory. But to actually fight for your life… even if you'd been trained to do so, it was still a daunting prospect.

"But before all that," Sid continued. "We'll have you sit a personality test."

"What?" Lewis asked, raising an eyebrow. "Seriously?"

"Yes, seriously." Sid said simply. "A good Weapon-Meister pair usually has different personalities. The best example I can give is Black Star and Tsubaki. I know you've met Black Star, so you know how he is."

"Yeah. But I haven't really spoken to Tsubaki much." Lewis said. "Is she like him?"

"About as far from him as you can get, personality-wise." Sid chuckled. "But what those two have is a deep mutual respect for each other, and that only strengthens the resonance between their souls."

Lewis nodded as he was led to an empty classroom and was given several pages worth of multiple choice questions and a pencil.

"I'll be gone for a few minutes to give you some peace and quiet." Sid said, heading to the door. "Just leave your test on the desk when you're done."

As Sid shut the door, Lewis got to work filling out the questions. As he did, he wondered what kind of partner he'd end up getting. He seriously doubted he'd get anyone like Black Star, seeing as there was nobody like Black Star in existence, which Lewis was glad for. It wasn't that he didn't like Black Star, he just thought two of him would result in the end of all existence. Really, the person he thought would be his opposite personality-wise would be Melissa. But then again, she hated Weapons. In fact, she wasn't even associated with the DWMA as far as Lewis knew. Then again, there was Vera. She seemed quite nice, and she didn't have a Weapon already. But judging from the size of the class he found himself in, Lewis thought that there could be a ton of possible candidates. But did he even want to have a Meister in the first place? He'd seen those Kishin Eggs only briefly, but they'd terrified him. Lewis didn't know if he could put his life on the line, for anyone or anything. He knew his short-comings. He definitely wasn't a fighter of any kind, and yet he'd become a living Weapon, but he was still lost as to why or how. He always thought he was just a normal human, but now he was rapidly turning into something entirely different. It scared him.

As Lewis circled his answer on the final question, he looked through the entire test again to double-check his answers. Satisfied, he got up and left his test on the desk and left the room.

*v*v*v*

*v*v*v*

A/N

A/N

A/N

Hello everybody and thank you all for your reviews! I love reading your feedback and I definitely appreciate it. If you enjoyed the story or have some constructive criticism, be sure to leave a review. Thanks again, you guys are awesome.

-The Shrubbery King


	5. Chapter 5

Lewis stared out the window of the classroom at the cloudless blue sky that hung above the barren stretches of the Nevada desert. Lewis was once again sitting between the girl with the headphones and Brianna as the roll was methodically called. Lewis felt quite tense. He was thinking about having to go out on missions again. Sure, he'd be travelling all around the world, but the idea of fighting monsters didn't exactly appeal to him.

As Roll Call finally came to an end, Mrs Goldburn handed Lewis a small slip of paper.

"Here you go." She said.

"What's this for?" Lewis asked.

"You've been chosen for a Meister-Weapon Pair Selection. They usually hold these at the start of the year, but since you're a late-comer it seems that you get a special day all to yourself." Mrs Goldburn explained. "It'll go for the whole day, so you'd best make your way there now."

"Yes ma'am." Lewis nodded.

Lewis made his way through the corridors until they arrived at an indoor dojo styled training room. Waiting inside was a group of five people. One of them was very familiar to Lewis, but he wasn't sure how. The others were people he'd never seen before. It was then that Lewis spotted Vera among the others. When Lewis thought about walking over to her to start a conversation, a man with red hair and a black suit entered behind Lewis.

"Ah, so you're finally here." He said. "My name is Spirit Albarn, I'll be overseeing the selection today."

'Isn't that Maka's dad? What's the Grim Reaper's own personal Death Scythe doing here?' Lewis thought as Spirit approached him. 'And didn't he get here after me?'

"So, you're the new Weapon, huh?" he said with a scowl. "What's your name?"

"I'm Lewis." He said placidly.

"Uh huh. So what's the deal between you and Maka?" he asked suddenly.

"What?"

"Don't play dumb! If you think I'm going to let just any snot nosed brat cosy up to her you've got another thing coming!" he shouted.

"I… What?" Lewis reiterated. "We're just friends, what are you talking about?"

"So you have absolutely no romantic interest in her whatsoever." Spirit said, looking at Lewis with critical eyes.

"No." Lewis said simply.

Suddenly looking a lot more relieved, Spirit clapped his hands and smiled. "Well now that that's been cleared up I think we can get on with the selection!"

Everyone else in the room sighed. 'What a nut job.' They thought simultaneously.

"Alright, here's how this thing is going to work!" Spirit announced. "Lewis here is going to transform into his weapon form, and then each of you are going to try resonating with his soul. Once you do that, you can try picking him up. Give him a few practice swings to see if it feels right for you. Do you all understand?"

Everyone gave a nod of understanding.

"Then let's get on with this." He said.

Lewis walked to the centre of the room and transformed himself into his weapon form, point sticking into the soft floor of the training room.

"Okay, so who's first?" Lewis asked.

"I'll go." Announced the familiar one with blond hair.

"Are you sure Hero? I mean, the last time you tried to resonate with someone you ended up in the nurses' office." One of the others said.

'Hero?' Lewis thought. 'Oh yeah, this must be the guy who came close to mastering Excalibur. Boy do I not envy him.'

Hero looked nervously at Lewis' blade as he closed his eyes and concentrated. After about a minute of complete silence, he opened his eyes and sighed heavily.

"Nothing." He sighed. "I really am the worst Meister ever."

As the others consoled Hero, another person stepped up to try, this one with closely cropped brown hair and a cocky grin.

"Yeah, I'll be able to do this first try." He said, wrapping his hand around Lewis' grip.

Immediately, Lewis began to feel a sharp ache in his shoulder and gave a loud cry of pain. Similarly, the Meister who tried without even seeing if their souls could resonate pulled his hand away, clutching at it as some minor burns steamed off it.

"What the hell was that for you asshole?!" he shouted, kicking Lewis' blade and almost uprooting him from the ground.

Lewis retaliated by whipping his chain around, the thick shackle connecting with his chest with a dull thud, knocking the wind out of him and sending him stumbling back.

'I can manipulate my own chain? Well I guess it is a part of me. Still, that's good to know.' Lewis thought as the other guy got back to his feet.

"You bastard! What was that for?"

"Don't give me that you dickwad! You didn't even check to see if our souls could resonate! Second of all you kicked me, you piece of shit!" Lewis shouted.

"Alright you two, that's enough." Spirit said. "Who wants to go next?"

"Um." Vera began. "Lewis, could ah try to wield you?"

"Huh?" Lewis asked. "Sure. Thanks for asking."

Vera gave a nod as she closed her eyes. Then Lewis could feel it again, the same sharp twinge and tingling feeling, deep at his core. But he could feel another tingling. It was coming from Vera. She wrapped her gloved hands around the grip and pulled Lewis from the ground. Lewis could feel himself lift from the ground as Vera opened her eyes. She gave a wide smile and Lewis did the same, his face appearing in the charcoal coloured blade.

"Well, looks like we've found our match." Spirit smiled. "Alright you two, there's a couple of training dummies over by the wall there. See what you can do. As for the rest of you guys, thanks for coming. Anybody who got injuries goes to the Nurse's office."

The other potential Meisters left the room, leaving Vera and Lewis alone.

"So, how is it?" Lewis asked.

"You're really well balanced. And lighter than ah expected." Vera said, giving Lewis a few experimental swings before picking up the chain dangling off the end of the grip. "So you can control this?"

"Yeah, I think so." Lewis said, opening and closing the shackle a few times.

"Do you think that you could grab one of the dummies from over there?" Vera asked, pointing at the closest training dummy.

"We could give it a shot." Lewis said.

Vera twirled the chain around in her hand before tossing it at the dummy. Lewis tried clamping down on the dummy's arm, but he did it too early and it bounced off, clattering to the ground as it rattled back towards them.

"Is it just me, or did your chain get longer?" Vera asked.

"I think so." Lewis said. "That threw me off a little."

"Let's try it again." She said.

For the next few minutes, Lewis' shackle was thrown at the dummy with varying degrees of success until finally the iron shackle clamped around the dummy's outstretched arm.

"Yeah! Finally, we did it!" Lewis cheered.

Without warning, Vera yanked back on the chain, flinging the dummy towards them. With a great yell Vera slashed down vertically, cleaving the dummy in two. It fell to the ground with a wooden thump behind them as Lewis' chain reeled itself back in.

"Whoa." He said. "That was pretty incredible!"

"Oh, ah'm sorry. Ah probably should've said something before ah did that." She apologised.

"No no, it's fine." Lewis said. "That's a pretty good attack. You're a lot stronger than you look."

Vera smiled with pride, feeling her heart swell. All of her training was finally paying off.

"Hey, I've got an idea for an attack." Lewis said. "If I put my shackle around your arm, you could throw me at a target."

"Throwin' a sword? Are you sure that'll work?" Vera asked.

"I've seen a video on it." Lewis said. "You've got to throw me kind of like a javelin by the cross-guard."

"Oh, ah see." She nodded. "Alright, we'll give it a shot."

Lewis' shackle locked around Vera's arm, causing her to twitch.

"Hey, are you okay?" Lewis asked.

Vera nodded as she adjusted her grip, putting her hand on the cross-guard. "Ah'm fine. Now get ready, ah'm gonna throw you."

Vera's arm reached back and Lewis looked straight at his target down his blade. Vera flung her arm forward, propelling Lewis into the dummy with incredible speed, thudding deep into the wooden dummy. Vera tugged her arm back, yanking Lewis out of the dummy back to her. Vera deftly caught Lewis in her hand as his face appeared in the blade again.

"You're way stronger than you look." Lewis said, feeling dizzy. "I think I've got a headrush."

Vera gave a giggle. "But you don't have a head."

Lewis laughed at this, as did Vera.

"Um, can you let go of me now? This shackle's really cold." She said.

"Oh! Right, sorry." Lewis said, letting the shackle drop from Vera's arm. "You know, I think this is going really well."

Vera gave a happy nod.

"Do you want to keep practicing?" Lewis asked.

"Yeah." She said. "But ah think we should get to know each other better too. Ah don't reckon ah know a thing about you."

"That is a good idea." Lewis agreed. "Tell you what, let's have lunch together. We can get to know each other then. For now, let's practice the shackle toss."

Vera gave a nod and grasped the chain again, twirling it around in her hand as she aimed for another wooden dummy.

*v*v*v*

*v*v*v*

Lewis and Vera stood on a balcony overlooking Death City, both of them eating sandwiches.

"So, where are you from anyway?" Lewis asked.

"Ah'm actually from a town nearby, it's in Nevada." She replied. "Have you heard of Goodsprings?"

"Sure have." Lewis nodded. He's played Fallout New Vegas to death.

"Really? It's not that big a town." She said in surprise. "How'd you hear about it?"

"Eh, just some useless trivia I guess." Lewis shrugged. "I can't even remember where I learned it. Guess I just liked the name, so it stuck with me."

Vera gave a smile. "So where're you from?"

"Australia, about as south as you can get before you hit icebergs." Lewis chuckled.

"Wow. Are there really kangaroos everywhere?" she asked.

"Pretty much, but they're not as common as you might think." Lewis said. "Introduced species are much more common. They're kind of a pest."

"Oh. That's a shame. But ah guess that's why you're so used to the heat. A lot of people who come from other places are always sweating like pigs on a spit." She chuckled. "Say, why'd you wanna know where ah was from anyhow?"

"Well, I think it's because you don't really talk like a lot of the other people around here." Lewis shrugged. "But then again, people come from all over the world to be here. I guess the locals are a little outnumbered."

Vera gave a smile. "Ah was always made fun of a little for my accent. A lotta kids my age are talkin' like they do in the movies, so fast an' slick. But Ma always talked so nice and soft an' warm, like fresh cotton. Ah guess it jist stuck with me."

Lewis nodded. "I like it. It's nice."

"Thank you kindly." She smiled.

"So what was it like growing up in Goodsprings?" Lewis asked.

"It wasn't bad." She said. "Ah had a few friends, but for most of my spare time ah helped Ma and Pop run the old general store there. Ah learned how to ride horses too."

"Really?" Lewis asked. "That's pretty cool. So how'd you come to the DWMA?"

"It was Ma and Pop's idea." She said. "Pop used to be a Meister himself before he retired and met Ma. One day he told me that my soul wavelength was stronger than it should've been at my age. So he sent me here. But for the longest time, ah just couldn't synchronise with anyone else. My soul's wavelength jist wouldn't connect for some reason."

Lewis gave a nod. "I think it might be because people got the wrong impression of you."

"Huh? Whaddya mean?" Vera asked.

"On the outside, you seem to appear as this meek, shy girl. But after seeing how you talked to Professor Stein and showed him your power, I think you're actually a pretty determined person." Lewis explained. "But then again, that's just me. I'm not the best judge of a person's character."

Vera gave a warm smile and turned to Lewis. "Thank you kindly. That's very nice of you to say that."

"Don't mention it, pardner." Lewis grinned.

"Yeah, pardner." She laughed.

"You two seem to be getting along pretty well." Maka said as she walked up to them with Soul in tow.

"Oh, hey Maka." Lewis said. "How's it going Soul?"

"Not too shabby." He replied. "So what are you two up to?"

"I hope you're not skipping classes together. Sid doesn't go easy on people who do that." Maka warned.

"Actually, Vera and I have become partners." Lewis explained. "I completed a full body transformation yesterday."

"Really? Sweet!" Soul said, giving Lewis a high five.

"You did that so soon? It takes most people weeks of trying to get a full body transformation right." Maka said. "I guess those stories about you being some kind of prodigy might be true after all."

"I wouldn't say that." Lewis chuckled. "Then again, I've never really been a prodigy before, so I don't really know what it's like. I just followed Soul's suggestion and, presto! It worked like a charm."

"So I guess you now know what kind of weapon you are." Maka said. "Can we see it?"

Lewis turned to Vera and she gave a nod. "Alright, but on one condition. You guys have to come with us on our first real mission." Lewis said.

"Hey wait, ah trained real hard for this! Ah want to find out jist what ah'm capable of." Vera objected.

"It's not that I doubt your skills Vera, I just think that having a more experienced pair come with us on our first mission might actually give us a bit more insight as to what exactly it is we're in for. Besides, it'll ease us into the experience a little more." Lewis reasoned.

"Actually," Maka interjected. "It's pretty common practice for more experienced pairs to accompany newer pairs on their first few missions. We can even help you pick out a suitable mission if you'd like."

"We weren't really planning anything anyway, so I guess we could tag along." Soul smirked.

Vera gave a small sigh. "Well shoot, ah guess you've got a point there." She said. "All right, they can come with us."

"Thanks Vera." Lewis smiled. "Now I'm guessing you two would like to see my weapon form, right?"

As Lewis began to transform, Vera put a hand on his shoulder. Her hand closed around the grip as Lewis' shape began to change into his weapon form. The chain replacing the pommel jangled as the shackle dropped to the ground with a clank as the light vanished from the charcoal black blade.

"Man, that's such a weird form." Soul said.

"What would you even call that? A shackle and a broadsword…" Maka murmured. "A shacklesword?"

"Hey, that sounds pretty cool." Lewis said, his face appearing in the blade. "Shacklesword. Yeah! I guess that makes you a Shacklesword Meister, Vera."

Vera gave a smirk. "Ah guess it does."

Lewis turned back into his human form, stumbling slightly as he hit the ground.

"I've still not got the hang of turning back to normal." Lewis said, dusting his hands off.

"You'll get it eventually." Soul chuckled.

Maka gave a smile. "Well, see ya. You two should get some more practice in before we go on a mission. Maybe even try performing an attack using Soul Resonance if you think you're up for it."

"Attacking with Soul Resonance?" Vera echoed.

"When a Meister and Weapon can synchronise their soul wavelengths to perform a unique and powerful attack. For example, as a Scythe Meister I can resonate with Soul to perform a _Witch Hunt Slash_." Maka explained.

'There it is again.' Lewis thought, eyes widening a little in surprise. 'I'm definitely not hearing things this time. She definitely said _Witch Hunt Slash_ instead of _Witch Hunter_.'

"Wow, that's amazing." Vera said. "Ah wonder what kind of attack we could do, Lewis."

"Huh? Oh, sorry. I guess my mind kinda wandered off for a moment." Lewis said.

"Ah was just wondering what our Soul Resonance attack might be." Vera said.

"I guess we'll have to find out." Lewis shrugged.

"So when did you two want to try your first mission?" Soul asked.

"Three days sounds good." Lewis said.

Vera agreed with a nod.

"Alright. If you're planning on taking a mission there are a few things you need to do first though." Maka said. "First off, you need to get registered at the front office so they can cover all of the important things like contact details and passports. Then it's just a matter of going to the nurse's office for a checkup."

A cold shiver went straight up Lewis' spine at the mention of the nurse's office.

"You okay?" Soul asked, noticing how Lewis tensed.

"I… I just have this fear of needles." Lewis chuckled nervously. "But I guess it's just something I have to deal with."

Maka gave a nod. "It's been good talking with you guys, but Soul and I need to go. I'd suggest you take care of those things tomorrow. Bye!"

"Later." Soul said as he and Maka left.

"Take care now." Vera waved.

"See you." Lewis added.

After Maka and Soul left, Vera turned to Lewis.

"Ah think we should get back to training." She said.

"Sounds like a good idea." Lewis agreed.

*v*v*v*

*v*v*v*

The next day, Lewis shifted uncomfortably in his spot on the bed in the nurse's office. Vera was having her blood test and Lewis was next.

"Alright, all done." Medusa said. "Lewis, it's your turn."

Lewis felt himself tense again as Medusa approached him with a new needle. Sitting down beside him, she took his right arm in her hands and unwrapped the bandages from his arm.

"Now just relax. It won't hurt at all if you're not all tensed up." She said warmly.

Strangely enough Lewis felt a little put at ease by Medusa's words. After all, she **was** the nurse, even if it was all a disguise.

'God damn, she's good at this.' Lewis thought as he looked away.

Lewis felt a sharp pain in the crook of his elbow as Medusa took a small blood sample. In only a few seconds she was done, taking the syringe full of blood and depositing it in a tray on her desk.

"There. All done." She said. "Your sunburn is looking a little better too. I'd keep applying that ointment I gave you to help speed your recovery. Have you been using it regularly?"

"About every two days I need to reapply it." Lewis answered.

"Good. If you ever need any more you know where to find me." She smiled. "Now, you should both go prepare yourselves for your first mission. It's a dangerous world out there."

Lewis and Vera left the nurse's office, leaving Medusa to get to work. Squirting a little of Lewis' blood into a microscope slide, she slipped it under the lens and peered into it. Large red blood cells bounced against each other, moving with slow rhythm. Medusa frowned as she twisted a few dials, searching around the sample a little more. After diligently searching around, she found a few dark cells hidden amongst the red blood cells.

"Hmm. Not nearly as many as I had anticipated. I wonder if it's even enough." She muttered under her breath, taking a small notebook out from a pocket hidden at the very back of her lab coat before noting down her findings. "How disappointing."

*v*v*v*

*v*v*v*

Lewis and Vera stood in front of the mission board, looking at the various missions that were available.

"There are just so many." Lewis said, looking at all the available tasks.

"Ah don't think that we're allowed to go on a lot of them. Look," Vera said as she pointed to one of them. "That one there's a Three Star mission. We're only One Star Meisters."

Lewis gave a small sigh and put his hands on his hips. "Looks like we've got a long way to go."

Another pair of footsteps pattered down the hallway as Maka and Soul joined them. "Hey you guys. Are you ready?" Maka asked.

"Yessir. Ah've packed my bags and ah'm ready to go!" Vera grinned excitedly.

"I didn't really have much to pack anyway, so I guess I'll be travelling light." Lewis shrugged.

"Good plan." Soul said, turning to the mission board. "Now, what are we going to do today?"

"I think we should start off with something a little more challenging." Maka said, picking a job off the board. "How about this one?"

"Hunt down a Kishin Egg in Cheddar, the UK. Woman Scorned Jillian, wanted for Murder and… Adultery." Soul read aloud. "What, cheddar some kind of cheese isn't it?"

"The cheese was probably named after the town." Maka said.

"Mmm… Tasty." Soul muttered, drooling a little at the corner of his mouth.

"Well, it is only one Kishin Egg. What's so challenging about it?" Lewis asked.

Maka turned over the job in her gloved hand. "Apparently they don't know its exact location, but they know it's somewhere in the region."

"Don't you worry yourself. We've been training hard for the past few days." Vera smiled. "We can handle something like this."

"I think I'm ready." Lewis agreed. "We haven't really had anything to measure ourselves up against, so I can't really gauge our abilities."

"Ah still think we could probably manage this ourselves." Vera said.

"Don't worry. Soul and I won't intervene if you're not in any real danger." Maka reassured them.

"Sounds good to me." Lewis nodded.

Vera only gave a nod in response.

"Well, now that we're all set I think you should hand this in to the office." Maka said, handing the mission to Vera. "We'll meet you at the airport."

"Alrighty." Vera nodded. "Come on Lewis, let's go!"

As Lewis followed, a thought came into his mind. 'Wait, there's an airport in Death City?'

*v*v*v*

*v*v*v*

It was late in the evening when Maka, Soul, Lewis and Vera arrived in Cheddar. Light fog covered the entire town, giving it a strange hazy feeling, like it wasn't quite real. A few townspeople wandered around, although it seemed that many were staying inside their homes.

"So, when do we start looking?" Lewis asked.

Vera put a finger to her chin in thought. "Maybe we should wait until night before looking for it."

"We shouldn't waste time." Maka said. "While Kishin Eggs don't usually come out during the day, that doesn't mean that all we can do is wait."

Lewis gave a low hum. "Maybe we should ask around where the thing was last seen. Some of the locals should know."

"Oi! Halloo thar, you kids!" came a shout from the fog. A police officer strolled into view, his torch shining a beam of light through the fog. "Are you kids Meisters?"

"Yessir." Vera said. "Ah'm Vera, and this is Lewis. We're here about the Kishin Egg that was around these parts."

"Wow. I always wondered 'ow they got word so quick." The policeman said. "Anyhoo, I suppose you'll be wantin' t' know whar tha' monster got off to."

"If you'd be so kind." Lewis nodded.

The police officer took out a small notepad and leafed through it. "Tha' thing's been attacking women indiscriminately around the west half o' town. We've cornered off the scenes where the incidents 'appened, but so far no pattern's been evident." He reported.

"Only women?" Soul asked. "Not cool at all."

"Aye. A few men 'ave been roughed up pretty bad, but none of 'em died. A lot of 'em 'ave been found with their bait 'n' tackle out too, which is strange." He said. "We're sure none of the incidents are related since none of the victims knew each other, but all the crimes 'appened around the west end of town."

Vera gave a nod. "Alrighty. Thank you kindly sir."

"You be careful kids. Tha' monster's dangerous." The police officer said before disappearing into the fog.

The group of four huddled together. "Alright, it looks like we've got an area we can investigate." Maka said. "Soul and I will investigate the south, you guys should keep an eye on the north."

"We'll keep in touch with these." Soul said, tossing Lewis a walkie talkie. "Just call in if you see it. We'll do the same for we see it."

Lewis nodded as he slipped the walkie talkie into his pocket. "Alright, we'd better get moving. It'll be night soon."

*v*v*v*

*v*v*v*

Vera and Lewis walked through the silent streets, the fog thickening in the cold night air. They both watched around them carefully for anything that might be moving in the shadows.

Vera shivered as she rubbed her arms. "Brr! It's so cold my fingers might freeze and drop off."

"It's not so bad." Lewis shrugged.

"Says you, wrapped up from head to toe." Vera snorted, her breath turning white in the cold.

"Don't worry. When the fighting starts you'll forget all about it." Lewis said.

A loud clank was heard as a shape in the darkness thudded against a light post, a deranged looking woman with long hair illuminated in the night. Her skin was wilted and pale, the muscles underneath looking thin but wiry. At the end of her long fingers was a set of deadly sharp, perfectly manicured long nails, painted the most garish pink colour that Lewis had ever seen.

"That's her?" Vera asked, putting her hand on Lewis' shoulder.

"Looks like it." Lewis nodded. Handing the walkie talkie to Vera, Lewis transformed. Whirling his sword form around, she grabbed his chain in her free hand before pointing the blade at the Kishin Egg.

"Woman Scorned Jillian, it's time for me to take your soul!" She shouted.

"Raah! Stupid hussy, all men belong to me! They're mine I tell you, mine!" the creature raved in a strained, hollow voice. "All the way down to their souls!"

With another wild yell, the creature lunged for Vera. Her eyes widened as she ducked under a vicious swipe from the Kishin Egg before whirling around and swinging at Jillian. The Kishin Egg leapt skywards, causing Vera to look upwards and gasp.

"She's fast!" Lewis exclaimed.

"Let's see if we can't ground her." Vera said, tossing Lewis' shackle at the airborne Kishin Egg.

The thing seemed to twist mid-air to avoid Lewis' shackle, which seemed to sail right past her as Lewis' reach halted before he reeled the chain back in. As it landed, the Kishin Egg ran off in the opposite direction.

"It's going south!" Lewis shouted.

Vera said nothing as she took off after it, a determined scowl on her face.

"Hey, aren't we going to call Maka and Soul?" Lewis asked.

"It's fine. Ah can handle this on my own." Vera said as she ran to keep up with the Kishin Egg.

Jillian rounded a corner and Vera followed, but Jillian had turned around and swiped at Vera with its clawed fingers. The claws screeched against Lewis' blade, causing him to cry out in pain. Vera wasted no time as she pressed forward with the attack, using Lewis' shackle as a bludgeon to deflect Jillian's attacks as she tried to stab at her with Lewis' blade. Balancing on both her arms, Jillian lashed out with a double kick that connected with Vera's chest, sending her sprawling to the ground and Lewis flying from her grip. Jillian leapt forward and crouched down over Vera, her eyes wide in terror as Jillian grinned toothily, gripping Vera's head in both her hands.

"I'll kill you, eat your soul, and then your little disappearing boyfriend will be all mine." She hissed, raising her arm to stab at Vera with her clawed hands.

"He's not my **boyfriend** ,you murderous whore-lady!" Vera shouted, trying to push herself out from under Jillian but the Kishin Egg held her fast.

Lewis' chain rattled as the shackle sped towards her wrist, clamping around it and locking shut with a metallic snap just as Jillian's arm tried to thrust forward. Lewis didn't budge as Jillian strained against the chain, as he'd buried himself up to the hilt in the ground. Seeing her chance, Vera thrust out her own hand into Jillian's midsection.

" _Soul Force_."

Electricity crackled from Vera's hand as her weaponised wavelength entered Jillian's body. The Kishin Egg leapt off her, body spasming in agony on the ground as Jillian let out a ragged cry. Vera ran over to Lewis, pulling him out of the concrete side path. As Vera turned back to Jillian, she saw that the Kishin Egg was already back on her feet and had launched itself towards them, her sharp nails leaving pink streaks in the lamplight. Vera held up Lewis in a guard position again ready to deflect her strike, but Jillian swiped upwards and lifted Vera off her feet. As she was in the air, Jillian grabbed Vera's leg and slammed her into a street sign, knocking the wind out of her. Jillian let go of her leg, letting her drop to the ground before picking her up by the hair, lifting her up to her own demented face.

"First I'm going to rip off all the skin on your pretty face," she grinned with red-stained teeth, her mottled hands lightly stroking Vera's face. "Then I'm going to tear out your pretty hair and pluck out your pretty eyes and smash out your pretty teeth. Then I'm going to tear off your pretty head. And then I'm going to eat your pretty soul. And then-"

"Vera! Come on, do something!" Lewis shouted. "Vera!"

"I…" she choked, eyes wide with terror and tears streaming down her face. "I… I can't… I can't move…"

Then there was a sound in the quiet of the foggy night. The rapid beat of sprinting feet on tarmac. Then came a shout from out of the gloom as Maka came storming towards them with Soul in hand. In one swift movement like a bolt of judgement from the sky, Maka slashed straight through Jillian's torso and bisected the Kishin Egg. Jillian gave one last strangled screech before her body began to twist and blacken before bursting into nothingness, leaving only a red pulsating soul behind.

Maka's feet tapped on the ground as Vera fell with a thump, breathing heavily as she let Lewis clatter to her side. As Soul transformed back into human shape, Maka approached them and knelt down beside Vera.

"Are you alright?" She asked.

Vera looked at Maka, her face white as a ghost and stained with fearful tears. She gave a single nod.

Maka gave a deep sigh of relief. "Good to hear." She said calmly before slamming her book down on Vera's head. " _Maka Chop_! What were you **thinking**?!"

Vera reeled back in pain and surprise, clutching her sore head. "Ow! Wh-what d'you mean? An' why'd you hit me? That really hurt!"

"We told you that we'd come to you if you found the target, didn't we? But you ran off after it on your own!" Maka chided, standing over Vera.

"Ah could handle it on my own!" Vera protested.

"But you're not alone." Maka said, kneeling back down by her side. "Tonight you were with us as part of a team. And you'll always be with Lewis. He's your partner, and you both need to work as a team. While some things should be done alone, teamwork is the best way to solve problems. Being in a team is about communication and working together to achieve a greater goal. You really shouldn't ignore your team like you did."

Vera nodded sullenly and dragged her knees up to her chest. "Ah understand. It's jist that ah wanted… Ah jist wanted to prove myself. To make Pop proud of me."

Maka sighed and sat down beside Vera. "Don't worry. If you work hard and connect well with your partner, you'll make for a great meister. You might even make Lewis a Death Scythe."

"Really?" Vera asked, wiping the tears from her face before smiling at Maka. "Thank you kindly."

'A Death Scythe? I never thought about that.' Lewis thought as he transformed back to a human, stretching his muscles. "So how'd you know we were in trouble in the first place? I don't think Vera called in on the walkie talkie."

Vera checked her pocket and noticed something as her hands brushed against it. "The button must've pushed in." she said. "My pockets are so small the button pushed itself in. Ah'm surprised it actually fit in the first place."

"At least you have pockets." Maka muttered under her breath.

"Well, thanks for your help anyway." Lewis nodded. "If you weren't here then… well, I don't like to think of the alternatives."

Vera still looked quite sullen. "Ah thought ah could handle it… Ah didn't want to depend on anyone."

"Hey Vera, don't worry about it." Lewis said, sitting down next to Vera. "If anything, I'm dependant on you. If you're ever without me then you can use that power you've got."

"Huh? What power?" Soul asked.

Vera responded by having a little bit of electricity crackle in the palm of her hand. "Ah can use _Soul Force_."

Maka gasped. "That's really rare. Only Black Star and Professor Stein can weaponise their soul's wavelength like that."

"Wasn't it called _Soul Menace_ though?" Lewis asked.

Vera gave a small smile. "Ah like _Soul Force_ better. It jist sounds better."

Lewis gave a chuckle and started smiling too. "Yeah, I guess it does."

Soul grabbed the Kishin Egg out from the air and handed it to Lewis. "Here. Eat up."

"Huh? But I didn't kill it. Doesn't that make it yours?" Lewis asked.

Soul gave a sharp-toothed grin. "Hey, this is your mission. We were just here for the ride. Besides, I had a big lunch."

Lewis gave another chuckle. "Thanks Soul." He said. He stared at it for a moment before looking back at Soul. "Wait, how am I supposed to eat this? This thing's huge!"

*v*v*v*

*v*v*v*

A/N

A/N

A/N

Hey everybody, the one and only Shrubbery King here. How're you all enjoying the party? Since school holidays have just started for me, I might be able to deliver you guys some more chapters, which I think we'll all enjoy. Which reminds me, I should probably write more in my other fanfics. Man, I haven't finished a lot of my stuff.

Anyway, thanks for reading and be sure to leave a review if you enjoyed it, if you have any criticism or just have any other thoughts about the story. Thanks again!

-The Shrubbery King


	6. Chapter 6

Lewis lay awake in bed, his hands behind his head as he stared up at the ceiling. Tonight he had eaten a soul. An actual, honest to goodness soul. And the weirdest thing was that as soon as he'd eaten it, he'd wanted another one. He really couldn't describe it. The texture was something like a huge lychee if it was surrounded by some kind of vapour, but it didn't really have any taste he could put his finger on. All he knew was that it tasted like nothing like he'd tasted before. But it was **good**. And that was what worried him. It was also at that point that he realised that he needed to go to the toilet.

Getting out of his cosy bed, Lewis began to walk through the hotel room that they'd rented for the night. Tiptoeing past Soul on the opposite bed, he stepped out into the hallway. Then he noticed that Vera was standing at the window at the end of the corridor, starring out into the foggy night.

"Hey." Lewis said quietly. "You're still awake?"

Vera turned around and nodded, wiping at her eyes. "Yeah."

"Are you alright?" Lewis asked.

"Ah… Ah'm fine." She said in a cracking voice, looking back out the window.

"You don't sound like you're fine." Lewis said. "Why don't you tell me what this is about. Maybe I can help."

Vera's head dropped beneath her shoulders. "Ah'm a failure." She whimpered. "All of that training, and fer what? All that time at the DWMA, wasted. Ah trained for months, never breaking from my regime. Ah trained with every kind of weapon that ah could think of. Spears, swords, guns, axes, maces, hammers, polearms, even scythes on the off chance ah'd become a scythe Meister!"

Lewis moved around to Vera's side and noticed that she was now crying heavily, her face going red and puffy as tears streamed from her eyes.

"It's jist no good! Even after all of mah training, ah couldn't kill one stinking Kishin Egg!" she wailed. "Even Heleana and Brianna have been out on a mission before, and they killed it without breaking a sweat! If it wasn't for Soul and Maka, then ah would've been killed! Ah'm… Ah'm jist so weak!"

Lewis stared at her for a moment, searching for something to say. "You know," he began. "I've never really been strong either, but that doesn't matter. We just have to work together. Weapon and Meister are far stronger together than alone."

"We were working together." Vera choked. "But we jist weren't good enough."

"That's why we're out here. To get better."

"We're not gonna get any better if we get ourselves killed!"

"Look, we know now what these Kishin Eggs are capable of. We underestimated them. We both did. Fighting wooden dummies and practicing combat drills and stances can only get you so far, just like how book-smarts can only do so much for you in the real world." Lewis said quietly, putting a hand on her shoulder. "So now we can learn to train better. We put up a good fight. Next time we'll put up a better one."

Vera had stopped crying as she looked at Lewis. Swallowing the lump in her throat, she tried to give a smile. "Alrighty. Thank you kindly for sayin' that."

"A pleasure." Lewis nodded. "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go piss. My bladder feels like it's about the size of a bloody watermelon right now."

Lewis quietly hobbled down the corridor towards the bathroom. Vera wiped her eyes, went back to her room while being careful not to wake up Maka and got back into bed.

"Ah could've gone my whole darn life without knowing that." She muttered before closing her eyes.

*v*v*v*

*v*v*v*

The next morning, all four of them were having a traditional greasy English breakfast in the hotel lobby. Lewis was feeling especially hungry for some reason, as had demolished half the plate moments after it had arrived.

"Did you guys sleep well?" Maka asked.

"Yup." Lewis said through a mouthful of grilled tomato and half the pepper in the shaker.

"So what next?" Vera asked.

"Well, we've got to find a mirror." Maka said.

"But ah've already freshened up." Vera said.

"Actually, we're going to use it to contact Lord Death." Maka explained.

"What? **The** Lord Death?" Vera asked.

'Huh. I kind of expected them to say Shinigami-sama or something. Then again, I'm pretty sure Maka is from a Western country.' Lewis thought to himself as he chomped on a slice of toast.

"Yep." Maka nodded.

"How does that even work?" Lewis asked.

"I think it's got something to do with that mirror Lord Death has in the Death Room." Soul said. "But I'm not sure."

Maka gave a nod of agreement. "There's a fairly big one in our room. Come on, let's go report in."

"Hold on, I want to finish my bacon first." Lewis muttered into his plate.

A few minutes later, the four of them were standing in front of the mirror in Soul and Lewis' room. Breathing on the mirror and fogging it up slightly, Maka wrote on the mirror with her finger.

"Forty two, forty two, five sixty four, whenever you want to knock on Death's door." She chanted.

The mirror immediately began to warp and ripple, glowing with an unearthly light.

"Freaky." Lewis muttered.

"Hello, Lord Death? Are you there?" Maka asked the mirror.

Eventually the light cleared from the mirror, revealing Lord Death himself, wrapped in a pitch black cloak with the simple white skull mask. He produced a huge square hand as he waved at them.

"Hello, hello Maka! How are you doing this evening?" He asked in a light and energetic voice. "Oh, and who's this I see? You must be our newest Meister and Weapon pair, how exciting! Please, introduce yourselves."

"My name is Vera, the Shacklesword Meister." Vera said. "It's awful nice to meet you sir."

"Ah, Vera! I you must be Chet's daughter!" he said. "I remember how promising he was as a Meister. But well, true love conquers all I suppose. It is his life after all, so he can lead it as he chooses."

'Okay, that can't be a coincidence.' Lewis thought. 'Her dad runs the Goodsprings General Store. His name is Chet. I mean come on!'

"So, who might you be? Come on now, don't be shy." The Grim Reaper said.

"Oh, me? My name's Lewis. It's good to finally talk to you." he said.

"Ah yes, the infamous Sky Kid! You caused quite the stir among the students when you first arrived didn't cha?" he said. "Sid tells me you've been developing quite rapidly as a Weapon, and an unusual Weapon at that. A Shacklesword you say?"

"Yep." Lewis nodded.

"What a curious implement. I look forward to seeing your development. So you two are the ones who completed the mission? Good job!" he said. "It's good to know that your very first mission was a success! Most of our students who are just starting out aren't so lucky."

Vera looked a little more downcast at that.

"Uh, excuse me Lord Death, I'd like to ask you a question." Lewis said.

"Go right ahead." He said.

"If Vera and I are partners now and we managed to complete a mission, does that mean we get to go up a class?" he asked.

Lord Death gave a thoughtful hum and put a finger to the bottom of his mask. "Well, I suppose that would be entirely up to your teachers. I'm really more like the principal of the academy, so while I get the final say I don't have much influence with your teachers considering your ranking in the school. If you'd like to move up to the EAT class, you'll just have to work a lot harder."

Lewis gave a nod of understanding.

"Still, from what I understand you two did a good job especially for your very first mission. And it seems you had some help from Maka and Soul as well. You've all done a spectacular job in defeating the Kishin Egg. Thanks for reporting in, and be sure to be back in time for classes tomorrow. Ciao!" The Grim Reaper waved at them merrily.

With that, the mirror reverted back to its original reflective state. Lewis stared at it for a moment before turning to Vera.

"Y'know, I thought that the Grim Reaper would be a little more… well, grim." Lewis said.

Vera nodded in agreement.

"Well, we should probably get back to the Academy. Our flight leaves soon." Maka said looking at her watch that was hidden beneath her white glove.

"Alright. I haven't even unpacked, so I'm good to go." Lewis chuckled.

*v*v*v*

*v*v*v*

Lewis and Vera trudged through the streets of Death City, both of their eyes staring vacantly out in front of them as they swayed from side to side.

"So… tired…" Vera muttered.

"If there's one thing you never get used to, it's the jet lag." Soul chuckled, rubbing his own eyes. "It's so not cool…"

Maka gave a loud yawn. "Well, I'm going back to my apartment for some shut eye. I'll see you guys later. C'mon Soul."

"Yeah, whatever." He said as he followed his Meister.

Vera yawned again. "Ah guess ah'd best go too."

"I'll catch up with you later then." Lewis said. "Hey, where d'you live anyway?"

"There's a block of dorms near the Academy. Ah've got a room there." She said.

Lewis gave a nod. "Good to know."

"Now what makes you say that?" she said defensively.

"What?" Lewis asked.

"The way you said that makes it sound like you were plannin' on-" Vera said before Lewis eventually caught on to what she was saying.

"No, I didn't mean it like that!" Lewis said, becoming flustered. "I just… ah, never mind. See you later Vera."

After Vera said her goodbye, Lewis turned and left for the Black Bean. It seemed Lewis was finally getting used to the layout of Death City. The sun was high in the blue sky as Lewis arrived back at the café, where Melissa and Miss Sweetums were waiting for him. This time Miss Sweetums was wearing a nurse's uniform, which threw Lewis off quite a bit.

"Oh, you're back." Melissa said as she looked up from her magazine. "So, how'd it go?"

"I just flew in from London and oh boy, are my arms tired." Lewis joked weakly before Sweetums lunged at him with a squeal and pulled him into another tight hug.

"Eee! I'm just so proud of you, going out on a mission for the first time with a Meister!" she said gleefully. "Are you alright? You're not hurt are you?"

"Nope. Perfectly fine." Lewis said. "Is that why you were wearing that nurse costume?"

"I just got this today in the mail. Isn't it adorable?" she asked.

Lewis looked her up and down and had to conclude that the answer was yes. But the why was still a matter of debate.

"Before you ask, Miss Sweetums is super into that cosplay thing they've got over in Japan." Melissa said, leaning on the counter. "She tried to get me into it once. It was a… an interesting experience."

"Now that only raises further questions." Lewis said as he shifted his bag. "If you'll excuse me, there's a bed I need to crash into."

As Lewis walked to the stairwell, Melissa remembered something.

"Oh yeah Lewis, I need to tell you something." She said, turning to Lewis. "The Nurse called today and said that you need to check in with her tomorrow."

The hairs on the back of Lewis' neck stood up. "Good to know."

*v*v*v*

*v*v*v*

The next day, Lewis was sitting in Medusa's office as she went about a regular check-up, also inspecting Lewis' arms.

"I think it's safe to say that your sunburn has gotten much better." She said. "However, I don't think you should keep using that ointment I gave you."

'Thank god.' Lewis thought. 'That stuff stank like all hell.'

"Now, have you been having any strange dreams lately?" she asked.

"Dreams?" Lewis asked. "No, not really. Well, there was that duck dream."

"Tell me about it." She said.

"Yeah, sure." Lewis nodded. "It was a couple of days ago, but one of my hands had turned into a shackle, my leg was a sword blade and my other hand was a duck. It said… well it said something that was really rude, then it grew a third eye and weird square teeth that looked like they hadn't been brushed in a couple of years. And then it tried to eat my face."

Medusa looked at Lewis with narrowed eyes. "I see."

Lewis felt a little on edge. "Does that… mean anything to you?"

"Oh? No, not really." Medusa said, shaking her head. "Anyway, I think that just about wraps up our check-up. Now if your sunburn begins to hurt again, I've prepared another bottle of that ointment for you."

Medsua stood up and gave another bottle of ointment, this time in a much larger brown glass bottle. Lewis took the bottle and carefully put it into his pocket.

"Thank you Miss Medusa." Lewis nodded.

"Oh, no need to be so formal." She laughed. "Just call me Medsua."

"Alright. Thanks again." Lewis said as he left the office.

After the door closed, Medusa gave a smirk as she set back to her other work.

*v*v*v*

*v*v*v*

Lewis was walking to his usual spot for lunch break when he spotted Helena and Brianna in front of the Mission Board.

"Hey guys, what's new?" Lewis asked.

"Ohmygosh you're back! How'd your mission go?" Helena asked excitedly.

"And where's Vera? I haven't heard from her pretty much all day." Brianna said.

"Vera? Is she okay?" Lewis asked.

"That's what I'm asking you, dummy." Brianna snorted.

"Did something happen on your mission together?" Helena asked.

Lewis gave a shrug. "The mission went okay I guess. Soul and Maka landed the killing blow on the Kishin Egg, so Vera was a little bummed about it. Have you seen her anywhere?"

Both shook their heads.

"She's been missing ever since Black Star talked to her." Brianna said.

'Black Star? What does he want?' Lewis thought. "Did he ask her anything?"

"I dunno." Brianna replied. "If you find her you should ask her."

"Where was she last seen?"

"The Entrance." Helena said. "That's where Black Star talked to her."

Lewis gave a nod and tightened the strap on his bag before running towards the nearest stairwell. Both Brianna and Helena moved closer together.

"D'you think we should have told him?" Helena asked.

"Nah, it'll be fine. Everyone has to do it sometime." Brianna said. "Who knows? If it goes anything like last time, he'll finally learn his lesson."

"Black Star? Learn something? Get real." Helena chuckled.

Lewis was thudding down the stairwell, weaving between people as they tried to get out of his way. Lewis called several apologies to the people he bumped into as he ran for the entrance.

"Hey, what's gotten the Sky Kid so rattled?"

"I dunno. Let's follow him!"

"Hey, where's the fire?"

It didn't take long for crowd mentality to set in. Soon there was a large group of students following Lewis as he burst out of the entrance, seeing Black Star and Tsubaki standing in the centre of the large concrete courtyard.

"Ha! There you are!" Black Star shouted, pointing a finger at Lewis. "Took you long enough!"

"Huh? Look, Black Star I need to ask you something." Lewis began.

Black Star smirked. "If you're begging for mercy, you won't find any here!"

"Huh?" Lewis asked. "What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about a rematch! Tsubaki and Me against you and Vera!" Black Star said loudly as the crowd began to gather around them.

Lewis snorted a laugh. "What? You're kidding me right?"

"Are you mocking me?" Black Star screamed.

"Nah, I just don't fight for no reason." Lewis said. "Besides, I wanted to ask you where Vera was anyway. I haven't seen her all day."

"Oh. Yeah, Tsubaki said that my usual way of challenging people to fights probably wouldn't work, so I talked to her and asked her nicely." Black Star said.

Lewis gave Black Star a blank look. "So… where is she?"

"I dunno! She ran off." Black Star said. "But we're getting off topic! It's time for our fight!"

"And you're okay with this Tsubaki?" Lewis asked.

"Well, it would be nice to see your skill. Sid has said that you two have been progressing quickly." Tsubaki said. "And it was really hard to say no to Black Star this time. He's really passionate about this."

'Oh fan-fucking-tastic.' Lewis thought. "Well, Vera's not here."

"Wait!" came a shout from the crowd as Vera pushed herself through the assembled ring, followed closely by Leo. "Ah found a teacher willing to referee!"

Leo looked between Lewis and Black Star and gave a small nod. "Well, I suppose you two might've butted heads eventually."

"Sorry 'bout this Lewis." Vera said. "He… he gave me such nice invitation. Ah couldn't possibly have refused the offer of such a gentleman."

'Gentleman? Really? He is literally asking for a fight.' Lewis thought. "You're sure about this?"

Vera gave a determined nod. Lewis gave a sigh and nodded as well.

"Okay fine." Lewis said.

"I hope you do well. Chain weapons like us are surprisingly rare." Tsubaki said as she transformed into her weapon state.

"I didn't know that." Lewis said as Vera put a hand on his shoulder before he transformed.

Leo looked between the combatants and nodded. "Now then, if you are ready," Leo said, raising his hand before bringing it down sharply. "Begin!"

"Let's go Tsubaki!" Black Star shouted as he launched himself towards Vera.

Vera took Lewis' chain in her other hand and tossed it at Black Star, who dodged out of its way. Black Star was now in range for an attack and swung with one of Tsubaki's blades. Vera parried the strike, but Black Star swung with the other blade in his hand. Vera grabbed Lewis' blade and swung out with the crossguard, catching Black Star in the jaw. Vera followed up with a kick at Black Star, who dodged out of the way of the strike.

"Heh. Guess I underestimated ya." He spat. "Tsubaki! _Shuriken Mode_!"

The chain-scythes in Black Star's hands began to glow as Tsubaki assumed her enormous shuriken form.

"She can change shape?" Vera gasped.

The muscles in Black Star's arms bulged as he hurled the oversized shuriken at Vera. Lewis' face appeared in the blade, looking at Vera. She wasn't moving.

"Vera, we've gotta do something!" Lewis shouted.

"Trust me." She said, taking the shackle and clamping it around her wrist.

'What is that supposed to mean?' Lewis thought before Vera leapt into the air and thrust Lewis' blade downwards through the large hole in Tsubaki. Metal rattled against metal as Tsubaki continued to rapidly spin, Vera struggling to hold her balance on Lewis' hilt.

"Whoa! Vera, you're really acrobatic!" Lewis exclaimed.

Vera gave a smirk. "Thanks."

"Grr… Tsubaki! _Smoke Bomb Mode_!" Black Star ordered.

The giant shuriken form vanished, and in its place was a massive cloud of yellow smoke. Lewis felt himself get yanked out of the ground as Vera landed on her feet, looking warily around her.

"We've got to get rid of this smoke. Or at least get out of it" Lewis said.

There was a dull thud as Vera pitched forward, reeling from the strike to her back.

"Vera! You okay?" Lewis asked.

Vera regained her balance and gave a small grunt. "Ah'm fine." She said quietly. "Lewis, I've got an idea. Ah'm going to use you as a tripwire."

Vera stabbed downward, planting Lewis' blade firmly in the ground. Vera leapt backwards until the chain was taut, but there was another thud as Black Star struck again.

"You thought you could trap me? Ha! I'm the greatest assassin in the world, there's no way you could catch me with a trick like that!" Black Star shouted as he kept up the assault.

Lewis gritted his teeth as he heard each strike. Letting go of Vera's wrist, Lewis's chain whipped around and grabbed Black Star's ankle.

"Huh?" Black Star gasped.

"Gotcha." Lewis grinned.

With a great heave, Lewis pulled the chain back towards him, causing Black Star to fall flat on his face. The yellow smoke started to clear as Tsubaki returned to a human form and ran to Black Star's side.

"Vera, quick! Use it!" Lewis shouted.

"Right!" Vera nodded before breaking out into a run towards Black Star, her palm crackling with white electricity before she slammed it into Black Star's midsection. " _Soul Force_!"

Black Star's face twitched as he shouted in pain, Vera's weaponised soul wavelength blasting through him.

"Black Star!" Tsubaki cried.

The blue haired assassin slumped forward, but stayed on his feet. Giving a haggard cough, he looked up at Vera with a vicious grin.

"Looks like you were holding out on me." He groaned, grabbing her by the shoulder and cracking the knuckles in his right hand. "So you can use your soul wavelength as a weapon too huh? Although, it's a little weak. Lemme show you mine."

Quickly, Lewis unclasped his shackle from Black Star's leg and launched it at Black Star's hand as he reached his fist back. Faster than he could notice, Tsubaki had deflected the shackle with a high kick.

"Crap! Vera!" Lewis gasped.

" _Black Star Big Wave_!"

Black Star slammed his fist into Vera's chest, knocking her off her feet and tumbling to the ground. Vera tried to push herself to her feet, barely standing on shaky feet.

"It's… not… over…" she panted and wheezed. "Ah'm not… done… yet."

"Yeah, you are." Black Star said, his face completely serious with all trace of his former cockiness gone. However this change wasn't noticed by Lewis, now back in human form, whose shackle just bounced off the back of Black Star's head.

"Well I'm not!" Lewis challenged. "Vera, you just rest a while. We can still win this!"

"Tsubaki." Black Star said. "You take care of Lewis. I'll finish off Vera."

Tsubaki nodded, her large ponytail turning into one of her hand-scythe weapons. Lewis pulled back in his shackle as Tsubaki moved in front of him.

"Are you ready?" Tsubaki asked.

Without waiting for a reply, she rushed towards Lewis with her blade in mid swing. Lewis raised up his chain to block the strike and lashed out with his foot, but Tsubaki was faster and pushed him off balance, causing him to fall flat on his back. She swung down again and Lewis raised his arm to try and protect himself, the long blade slashing a long line down Lewis' forearm. Lewis clutched at the wound, crying in agony. Tsubaki looked over at Leo, who still hadn't called the match.

"Wow, she got him in only two moves." Soul said from his position in the crowd, his sharp teeth rattling against a lollipop Maka had given him. "Just goes to show the difference between EAT and NOT classes."

"They still might be progressing fast, but they're still inexperienced." Maka agreed, standing next to Soul. "But I'm sure they'll make a good meister and weapon pair."

"I'm just wondering why Leo hasn't called the match over yet." Soul said, looking at the purple haired teacher. "Lewis' got a pretty bad looking cut on his arm, and Vera looks dead on her feet."

"A lot of people don't get Leo to referee for fights." Maka nodded. "He only calls the match once he knows that both meister and weapon are unable to continue, although his definition of 'unable to continue' can be a little strict."

Black Star continued his march towards Vera, who looked barely able to stand.

"You put up a better fight than I would've expected, but you've got to know when to quit." Black Star said.

"No." Vera breathed. "Ah… Ah can't give in."

Black Star was now standing within arm's reach of Vera.

"Listen Vera, you can't just run in screaming 'Death or Glory' or whatever. It's better to lose and live than to lose and die." Black Star said. "Sometimes you just gotta give something up."

Vera gasped for breath, her knees looking like they were just about to give up beneath her. "Not until you give the finishing blow."

Black Star gave a small smirk. "Alright. Well, you asked for it!" he said as he pulled his fist back. "You're gonna be seeing stars!"

The final blow wasn't as grandiose or as brutal as some members of the crowd were hoping for. Black Star's fist crashed into Vera's cheekbone and made a loud whack sound as Vera crumpled to the ground. Then, there was dead silence. Leo cleared his throat and stepped forward.

"The winners are Black Star and Tsubaki." He announced.

Lewis grimaced as Tsubaki helped him sit up off the stone courtyard. "Are you feeling okay?" she asked.

"Well, you did slash my arm pretty bad. Considering that, yeah I think I'm doing okay." Lewis grunted. Taking his hand away, he saw that the slash had ripped right through his bandages, dark blood soaking the white bandages. It was, without a doubt, one of the most painful things he had experienced.

*v*v*v*

*v*v*v*

Lewis left the nurse's office, a couple of stitches in his arm. Vera had been knocked completely unconscious by Black Star's punch and was currently in one of the beds in Medsua's office. Lewis didn't like the thought of leaving his Meister alone with a literal witch, but it was probably going to be alright. Probably. Lewis on the other hand had been told to keep the wound sterile and was discharged with only a bandage and a couple of stitches. He hoped it wouldn't become a trend.

For the rest of the day, Lewis attended his classes as normal. There was a lot of chatter and glances in his direction, which he found to be a little irritating, but it wasn't anything he couldn't deal with. He supposed that a lot of people supposed that he was upset that he lost. In truth, he was. But it was easy to understand why. Lewis didn't really like to admit it, but Black Star was leagues above him as a fighter. There was a reason he was in the EAT class after all. That and he was one of the protagonists after all. Speaking of, he wondered what Kid had been up to these past few days. If his placement in the timeline was correct it should be some time after his little incident at the Temple of Anubis. Then again, he really should be studying or at least practicing. But with Vera out of commission for a while it seemed that studying was his best option.

As he walked down the stairs, he spotted Maka and Soul laden down with bags slowly making their way up from the opposite direction. Lewis gave a friendly wave as he spotted them and Maka and Soul replied in kind. As they got closer, Lewis opened up conversation.

"Hey guys. What's with the bags? I thought you just went out on a mission."

"Well, yeah." Maka said. "Sid asked us to do another one. Apparently it's really important and nobody else is available. We're just going into the office to get the paperwork sorted."

"Man that kinda sucks. Paperwork and monster slaying." Lewis nodded.

"Hey, at least we get some time off in Italy before the mission." Soul shrugged.

"We're supposed to use that time for reconnaissance Soul." Maka chided.

"Hey, you call it what you want, I call it what I want."

Lewis gave a chuckle at the pair's antics. "So where are you headed anyway?"

"Italy." Soul responded. "Can't wait to treat myself to all the Italian food I can eat."

"Oh cool." Lewis nodded. "Stay safe you guys. Hey Soul, save me some gelato will ya?"

"No promises." Soul grinned as he and Maka made their way to the DWMA offices.

Lewis gave a nod and continued down the steps in the front of the DWMA. As he reached the bottom he felt a realisation hit him like a sack of bricks. Soul and Maka were going to Italy.

Crona.

Lewis turned and looked back up to the top of the stairs, a shout of warning caught in his throat. Maka and Soul were almost at the top, Soul currently struggling with his bags which seemed to have fallen off his shoulders. He should warn them. They weren't ready for the fight they were about to stumble into. But if he did warn them, they'd question him. Even if he could come up with a convincing story for how he came to know it, this web of lies could trap him. If he told the truth they'd think him completely insane, or just messing with them. But furthermore if he did that, Medusa would hear of it. And then she would be upon him, a snake hunting a sparrow. He didn't like the idea of being killed by a crazy snake witch. Or being experimented on.

It was at that point that Maka had turned and saw Lewis staring up at them from the bottom of the stairs. As she did Lewis quickly turned his head and hurried away.

'Guess I won't be getting any gelato then.' Lewis muttered bitterly to himself.

Far above on a balcony overlooking the entire scene, Stein was leaning over the railing with an ashen cigarette in hand. Blowing out a stream of smoke, he narrowed his eyes again. A door behind him creaked open as the footsteps of Spirit tapped out onto the balcony.

"So," he began. "Leo tells me you've been stalking the new kid."

Stein gave small chuckle. "Some might call it that. I prefer the term 'investigation'."

"Tell me then. Why are you investigating this new student?" Spirit asked.

"He's unusually tense around the school nurse."

"So what? You said he had a fear of needles."

"I have reason to believe that's a lie. He's suspicious of her in another way. Truth be told, I have my own reasons to be suspicious of Medusa."

Spirit turned his back to the patchwork scientist. "Be careful that your paranoia doesn't lead into anything dangerous."

As Spirit bean walking away Stein raised his cigarette to his mouth. "And what happens if I turn out to be right?"

Hand on the doorknob, Spirit looked over his shoulder to his old Meister. "That's what I worry about the most."

And with that, he shut the heavy wooden door with a dull thud. Stein took a drag of his cigarette and looked out over the horizon, watching as the sun dipped below the gothic spires of Death City, long tendrils of shadow reaching out over the streets below.


	7. The Totes Real Final Chapter

Lewis stood on top of the DWMA building, having just totally killed Asura, Medusa, Arachne, Giriko, Jesus, Kamina and the Three Stooges at the same time. He was also standing on their corpses. Holding aloft the fifteen different swords he had in his hand, he cried a cry of victory.

"I HAZ THA POWUUUUUURR!"

Suddenly all the hot girls in Soul Eater were clinging to his legs like that one Conan the Barbarian poster, only cooler because it was Lewis. They were all screaming his praises, but Maka was closest so she's the only one who gets dialogue.

"ermahgerd Lewis ur soo sexxxyy we shuld hav babbies 4eva!"

Lewis turned to Maka, his thoughts a jumbled mess of thoughts. He'd been waiting for this moment forever. As he tilted up Maka's chin, roses began blooming at the borders of the screen just like in Ouran High School Host Club. With trembling lips he softly sad the words he'd been meaning to say for a long time.

"a'ight nigga."

And then they all fucked forever.

But then suddenly the Grim Reaper showed up and was all like

"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING MOTHERFUCKER"

And then Lewis said

Lewis: fuk u old man u cant tell me wat 2 do!

And then Shinigami-Sama gasped so hard his head exploded.

And then they all kept fucking forever.

THE END.

*v*v*v*

*v*v*v*

Lewis woke up in a cold sweat, panting hard. Looking at his calendar, his eye twitched and he fell back onto his pillow.

"It's April already?"

HAPPY APRIL FOOLS DAY!


	8. Life Update

Hey y'all, Shrubs here.

Now, I have a little bit of news for you guys, whether or not it's good or bad is up for your own interpretation. As you might know I've not been the best with writing updates for my stories and there's a good reason for that. Several in fact. Reason one is that I've been working on an original novel of my own titled _In the Full Moon_ that I've now finished and am trying to find a publisher for. The second thing is that I've been accepted into university so now I really won't have any time to update any of my fanfics even if I wanted to. And yeah, I have kind of lost the drive to write fanfics. I feel a little crummy about this but was always more of a jumping-off point for me in my mind. It makes me feel a little bit weird that I actually have fans that I'm going to end up disappointing, but I guess them's the brakes. So unfortunately, don't expect any more works from me in the future for any of my fics.

But it's not all doom and gloom, since I actually have a Wordpress blog now! It's called **plotdotgif** and unlike my account, I'll definitely be updating regularly! I'll also be uploading little short stories on it as well as creating characters for you guys to write stories about, so if you enjoy my writings here then be sure to check out my blog. I've already uploaded one story ever-so-imaginatively titled _The Apple_ so if you want to read it, feel free to do so and if you feel so inclined subscribe to see for yourself. You can find it at **.com** or you can just search for it in the Wordpress search bar. I'll also be adding a link to it in my profile's bio, so if you want there's an easy link there.

Thanks for sticking with me you guys.

-The Shrubbery King


	9. Chapter 7

Lewis sat in his room, pondering to himself. Recently he'd moved out of the Black Bean to take on his studies at the DWMA full time, but he'd still be working at the Black Bean when he could. It had taken him a little while to move all of his things into the boy's dorm, but his new room was decent if basic. A desk, bed, cupboard, lamp, a window overlooking an excellent example of brickwork… in essence most of what you could expect of a building in the city. Currently he was sitting at his desk with a few of his books open as he pondered. Most of them were just workbooks and textbooks, but those he wasn't paying attention to. It was what they were obscuring that held his full attention. He'd torn out a sheet of paper from one of his workbooks and had made a diagram of plot points in the timeline, growing in complexity as he thought of factors he could potentially influence, either by accident or intentionally. As he explored all of his other options, he could feel his head start spinning. There were just too many variables, too many possibilities for things to go terribly, horribly wrong. As rotten as things were, in the end evil was defeated and good triumphed over it despite all the loss and chaos. But how was he going to prepare for all that was coming? How were he and Vera going to face it? He couldn't use his outsider knowledge in any helpful way either. Otherwise someone might pick up on it and think he was working for the enemy. Maybe he could play it off as a hunch once at most, but even then it wasn't very convincing. At least, not to him.

There was a knock at the door and Lewis covered up his diagrams with the rest of his books before he got the door. Opening it up, it revealed Vera. She still had quite a few bandages and bruises, but she seemed normal otherwise. She also had a fairly sizable sports bag over her shoulder, though it didn't look like it was carrying much.

"Hey Vera. I didn't think they'd let you in here." Lewis said.

"Ah jist told the front desk ah wanted to see you." She shrugged. "You up for some combat training?"

"So soon? You just got out of the nurse's office."

"Ah'm fine. But ah think the sooner we get back into training the sooner we can try for another mission."

"That is a fair point." Lewis nodded. "Alright, let's get to it."

Lewis shut the door behind him as he followed Vera to her favoured training grounds.

*v*v*v*

*v*v*v*

There was a loud mechanical thumping sound as another clay disc was launched into the sky. Vera pulled back her arm and tossed Lewis at it blade first with tremendous force. Steering himself to the best of his ability with his cross guard, Lewis's blade pierced the clay disc and shattered it. As bits of smashed pottery fell to the ground Vera yanked back on the shackle around her arm, drawing Lewis back to her. Catching him by the hilt, she finished with a flourish as the remains of the clay pigeon clattered to the ground.

"Alright! It looks like we're getting better at this." Lewis grinned as his face appeared in the blade.

Vera gave a somewhat stoic nod. It was understandable why she was so moody lately. Her ego was probably still hurting from both the defeat at the hands of the kishin egg and Black Star. Either that or she was just focusing intently on training.

Vera shifted the blade so that she was eye to eye with Lewis. "Say, d'you think we should try and perform a Soul Resonance attack?"

"Really? Would we even be able to at this point?"

Vera gave a shrug. "No point in not tryin'. B'sides, our souls resonate well enough from what ah can tell. May as well give it a shot."

Lewis gave a moment of thought before replying. "Fair enough. How should we do it then? Is there like, a guide on this kind of thing?"

Vera shook her head. "If there was, it'd make all this a lot easier." She said. "But let's just try it and do what seems right."

"Guess so. Ready when you are."

Vera stood still for a moment, holding Lewis in one hand and his length of chain in her other. She studied her target, a raggedy canvas training dummy humanoid in shape and covered in stitches, duct tape and rope with its stuffing poking out at almost every point, but somehow still holding together. They stood like this for a good five minutes before Vera gave a nod.

"Alright. Ah'm ready."

Lewis felt his mind go into a meditative trance. It was as if some kind of dark shadow had blotted out all light, but he could make out hazy pinpoints of light around him. These must have been the souls of others. The closest one was a dark pink orb with a somewhat pensive expression. Lewis briefly paused to wonder what his own soul would look like. Ignoring that, he pushed outwards towards Vera's soul, only to snap back to reality moments later.

"What the? What was that?" Lewis wondered aloud, feeling what he could only describe as existential whiplash.

"Ah think we weren't able to connect our souls is all." Vera sighed.

Now it was Lewis's turn to sigh. "Great. This is going to complicate things."

"Don' worry. We jist gotta keep tryin'." Vera said. "Ah mean, it's as you said right? We can learn to train better. We put up a good fight. Next time we'll put up a better one."

A slow smile spread across Lewis's face. "Yeah. I did say that didn't I? Alright. Let's keep at it."

And keep at it they did. Although progress was almost non-existent at the beginning, the two of them slowly began to progress. Although it was taking hours, and the setbacks were many.

"Let's try it again." Vera would say.

Lewis focused again, his expression one of pent up frustration. As he grew more frustrated he found it harder to connect with Vera. He had only just focused on her soul before snapping back to reality again.

"Ugh, this isn't getting us anywhere!" Lewis groaned.

Vera looked at the clock. They'd started at noon, but six hours was beginning to take its toll on them. Vera's stomach rumbled as she turned to Lewis.

"How's about we get somethin' to eat instead? I think we've done enough for t'day."

Lewis gave another sigh as he transformed back into human shape. "Yeah, I think that may be for the best. We can try again tomorrow. Do you know any good places?"

Vera gave a smile. "Yeah, I think ah do."

*v*v*v*

*v*v*v*

Lewis watched as Vera demolished the burger that had been set down before her. He was genuinely surprised that someone so reserved and dignified as Vera was eating so fast.

'Hidden depths I suppose.' He mentally chuckled as he looked at his own burger.

Like Vera, he'd chosen a burger with the lot. It was just like the ones back home with a thick mince patty, crisp lettuce, fried egg and sliced pineapple topped with tomato sauce. Although he supposed that here it was called ketchup or something. But what really surprised him was that the bun the whole thing was wrapped in was as black as the night sky. Just one of the many grim quirks of Death City he supposed. Lewis looked back to Vera, who had pretty much almost finished her burger.

"Are you sure you should be eating that so fast? You don't want to get a stomach ache."

Vera chewed her burger contently before swallowing. "Ah can't help it. It's jist so tasty." She shrugged.

"That it is." Lewis agreed. "So Vera, what are your interests?"

Vera looked up from her hamburger. "Interests? Whaddya mean?"

"Like movies, games, hobbies, stuff like that."

"Hmm. Well, ah do like watching mixed martial arts videos on the internet and watching professional wrestling on TV. Though ah guess you meant outside of fightin' huh?"

"Something like that. You can't be training all the time."

"Ah suppose. Ma told me a lot about baking and Pa told me how to handle cards just in case."

"What do you mean 'just in case'?"

"Pa always wanted to be a real card shark, but could never git the hang of it. The stress of professional games jist didn't do well fer 'im." She explained. "Ah think he might've thought ah might be tempted to try it someday."

"Geez, how old were you?"

"Ah reckon about eight years when I won my first real poker game." She said. "Ah won five hundred dollars. But that was all before ah became a Meister."

"Huh. Not bad."

"What about you? Not a lot of folks know much about that infamous Sky Kid." She said.

Lewis gave a small snort. "Man, I'm starting to hate that nickname… But anyways, I'm mostly a gamer. Video games, table top games, card games. I'm not too much of a poker player, but I like to think I can hold my own."

"Maybe we should have a game sometime."

"Yeah, but it's not too fun with just two people." Lewis shrugged.

"Ah'm sure we could find some more players. What about your other friends? That Maka girl seems nice."

"Eeh, I'm not too sure they're the card type."

"Still worth askin' ain't it?"

Lewis ummed and ahed for a mental minute before responding. "I suppose it is worth a shot. Soul might be interested too if not Maka."

"We should ask when we next see 'em." Vera suggested.

"I'll try to remember." Lewis nodded before taking a bite of his burger. "Mmm… this is really good!"

Vera smiled. "This is my favourite place to grab a bite to eat. It's probably not the healthiest, but ah can jist work it off while training."

"Yeah, you do a lot of training too."

"Well, ah want to be a great Meister someday." She nodded. "And to do that ah've got to work harder than anyone else."

"You can't work hard all the time though." Lewis warned. "It's like an air tank. You fill it with too much pressure and it'll explode. You've got to let some of the stress out every now and again. At least, that's how I excuse my laziness."

Vera gave a small chuckle. "You're an oddball ain't ya?"

Lewis' expression shifted to a more sombre mood. "I suppose I would be, wouldn't I?"

Vera blinked as she looked at Lewis' sudden change in attitude. "Hey, what's wrong?"

"Oh? Uh, don't worry. It's nothing." Lewis said before hastily taking another bite of his burger.

*v*v*v*

*v*v*v*

After eating at the diner, Lewis and Vera headed back to the dorms. It was on the way that Vera and Lewis were discussing what their Soul Resonance attack could be.

"Well since you're a sword weapon it might be some kinda powerful slashing attack." Vera reasoned.

"That is true, but somehow I get the feeling my chain is going to be incorporated somehow." Lewis said. "But then again some weapons change form when Soul Resonance occurs, so I wonder if I'll change to a different form. Or what it'll feel like."

"Ah don't imagine it'll be much different from transforming normally for you."

"That is true." Lewis shrugged. "I just wonder if our assumptions are wrong. Or if it'll even be possible for us."

"Ain't you some kinda prodigy though?" Vera asked.

"You can only travel so far on dumb luck. Hard work is what sets prodigies apart from the successful."

"Then ah guess we'll be doin' a lot of training then, eh pardner?" Vera grinned.

Lewis returned the smile. "Darn tootin' pardner."

Vera started snickering as they kept walking.

"What, too much?" Lewis asked.

"Yer a special kinda silly ain't ya?"

"Hey, some people find it endearing."

Vera gave a simple smile as they arrived at the front of the dorms.

"This was pretty fun. I guess we'll be training again tomorrow?" Lewis asked.

"Yup." Vera nodded. "Should ah come wake you up again?"

"I wasn't asleep then, but after today I probably will be. So yeah, knock yourself out." Lewis said as he waved Vera goodbye as she walked back to her dorms.

Lewis decided to head inside, his key in hand as he stepped into the common room. None of the weapons or meisters here he recognised, aside from a few that were in his classes. He'd not really spoken with any of them but they didn't seem too antagonistic. Which was good. After all, Lewis got the feeling that there were far, far bigger fish to fry than puffed up academy bullies. Lewis menally sighed.

'Well now that I have done my training with Vera I can get back to what I was doing. Let me see… what was I doing before…' he thought before he was stopped by the realisation. 'Oh no.'

Lewis' pace hastened as he began striding to his room. If anyone got their hands on the time-line sheet he'd planned out, he had no idea what could happen. If Medusa got her hands on it she might destroy him or brainwash him into her servitude. If Stein found it he'd probably torture him to death. As Lewis rounded the corner, he saw two individuals in white coats conversing outside his room.

"Professor Stein! Nurse Medusa?" he asked as he slowed his pace. "Wha-what are you two doing outside my room?"

Both Medusa and Stein turned to look at the new participant in their conversation. "Lewis. There you are." Stein greeted him. "You seem a little tired."

Catching his breath, Lewis cleared his throat. "I was training with Vera. I just got back."

"I see." He said. "As for why the nurse and I were standing outside your door, I was just catching up with one of my students who hadn't turned in an assignment yesterday after they'd been given an extension time. After that I saw Nurse Medusa through the halls and decided to strike up a conversation. Purely platonic I assure you."

Medusa gave a curt huff as she turned away, nose upraised. "Hmph! I'm sure you meant it that way."

"Oh come on, you didn't really think I was interested in that did you?" Stein said with a grin.

What followed was a class A slap as Professor Stein was sent spiralling into the opposite wall before Medusa stormed off with indignity. Maybe false indignity Lewis had to remind himself as he picked up the patchwork professor off the ground.

"Uh, here you go Professor." Lewis said.

"Not a problem." Stein said as he dusted off his labcoat.

Lewis gave a small sigh. "Well, I guess I'd better get back to what I was doing."

"Hold on a moment." Stein said, stopping him before he started moving again. "Now that you're here there's something I wanted to raise with you."

"Is it about Vera's powers?"

"Not exactly." Stein said, putting a hand into his pocket. "It's more about yours."

"My powers?" Lewis echoed. "We're progressing with our-"

"I mean this." He said, drawing out a sheet of paper from his pocket.

Lewis' jaw dropped. It was the timeline he was plotting, its complex web sprawled over the page. Lewis looked up to Stein's eyes. They showed absolutely no emotion whatsoever whereas Lewis was sure his were betraying his surprise and fear. Stein put the evidence away before adjusting his glasses.

"So it's as I thought. You're not quite who you say you are, are you Sky Kid?" he chuckled. "But the question remains. **What** indeed, are you?"

"Uh… P-Professor Stein?" Lewis stammered. "C-ca-can I suggest we go somewhere a little less… populated?"

"What a coincidence. I was about to suggest the same thing. Had you predicted that as well?"

"No, I-"

Stein grabbed his shoulder and moved away with Lewis. "Enough. We're going to my lab. We'll talk more there."

Lewis had never felt such intense dread come from mere contact before. As he looked back to his room he began to feel that he would not survive the night in the mad teacher's laboratory.

A/N

A/N

A/N

Uh, hey. Bet you didn't expect to hear from me again. Because of the, y'know, saying I was leaving thing. Anyway, I have another announcement.

After getting a lot of requests, I've decided to go back on my word. I know, shocker. I do that a lot now that I look back on it (How's that Insidious Fairy remake coming along, eh?). But I don't think I should just leave all you guys hanging with nothing, so I've decided to at least try to finish all the Wannabe stories I wrote and at least give a somewhat satisfying conclusion to each one. After that, I'm out. Unless I go back on my word again, which is entirely possible.

However, there will be some changes to how I write because of this. Mainly the chapter length will be shortened just to make it a little easier on me since now that I'm at university I've got a lot of things to keep track of with independent living, keeping myself fed, looking for work, meeting new people and not even mentioning my classes. But like I said, I've got to give you guys something so something is what I'll give you.

Secondly is that I'll be writing all of the chapters before uploading them instead of uploading them weekly as I go along. I think it'll make me feel as if I need to actually finish the story since uploading single chapters gives a weird sense of completion all on its own. And I want to finish these stories, so you guys might be left hanging for another while.

But I **promise** you, on my internet honour **I will complete these stories**. However long it may take, I'll get them done.

Thanks for sticking around.

-The Shrubbery King/plotdotgif


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